The Other Side
by Taken King Oryx
Summary: A lot of things are going on right now. Read it to find out. Also, I'm back bitches.
1. Prologue: Failure

_**I will be adding at least 1 new chapter a week, depending on free time, maybe more.**_

 **Prologue**

Silent, Alert, and ready to kill. The Guardian who had managed to find Oryx was determined to end him, even though Ikora and Eris didn't believe him. _There it is,_ he thought as he reached the open doors of Oryx's chamber. Silently, and ever so stealthily he crept out from behind his cover and lined up the scope on his sniper with Oryx's head. Noiselessly the guardian waited for Oryx's to turn around and face in his direction. He waited and waited until finally, Oryx turned around, and the guardian fired a single shot. There was a loud boom from the sniper and a strange earsplitting Crack, and the bullet struck Oryx, or would have, if Oryx was still there. Confused, the Guardian looked around trying to figure out where Oryx had gone. The Guardian stood up, and was lifted into the air and thrown into the center of Oryx's chamber.

"YOU DARE ATTACK ME ALONE, GUARDIAN!" Oryx roared, "I AM ORYX, THE TAKEN KING, AND YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD STAND A CHANCE AGAINST _ME_?!

" Well, yeah, I guess." The Guardian responded as he picked himself up off the ground and brushed the dirt from his Warlock robes. "Dude, look what you did, my Exotic Robes are all filthy now."

"Shut up and fight Guardian." Oryx snarled Menacingly.

"My name is Zephron or Zeph, and you're a prick." Zephron responded before jumping up and firing a Nova bomb at Oryx. Oryx responded with a roar and batted the nova bomb away with his sword before summoning a hoard of Taken.

On and on the fight went, Zeph sustained hit after hit from Taken Thralls, Acolytes, Vex, Knights, and Cabal, Until finally, he could take no more and fell to his knees in front of Oryx. A Taken Knight moved to finish him but Oryx waved him back.

"I yield, please spare me." Zeph begged as Oryx began laughing. "Hurry up and get us outta here." Zeph quietly hissed to his Ghost.

"I can't, I don't even know where we are." His Ghost whispered back.

"A Guardian, at my feet, begging for his life. I expected better from you." Oryx snarled gleefully, "And now, I will have a Guardian of my own." Oryx spoke a short strange incantation before waving his sword sword over Zeph. Immediately, Zeph felt as if he were being crushed from all sides and watched, helpless, as darkness swirled about him and his Ghost, until the darkness became absolute and he knew no more.


	2. Chapter 1: A New Beginning

**Chapter 1**

Zeph awoke with a splitting headache in a cold, dark cell. "Thank God, you're finally awake." Ghost sighed before he materialized before Zeph. Zeph jerked back in surprise as his Ghost revealed itself to him, but his Ghost was different. Instead of the normal red, it was black, white, and seething with Taken energy. "Don't be alarmed," Ghost said, "We were Taken by Oryx but he couldn't take your mind due to your connection with the light. He locked you up here and said he'd be back."

Without warning, lights flashed into existence and Oryx glided into view. Zeph looked around and Inspected his cell. The cell was rather small, about 10ft by 10ft, with dark mud brown walls and a translucent barrier where the door should have been. The doorway was strange, it seemed small but could easily admit Oryx through. Zeph then looked down at himself and was shocked to see his armor seething with Taken energy, the same way his ghost was.

"Guardian, you have been Taken, yet you resist control, why?" Oryx asked angrily.

"Because I refuse to be controlled by anyone you, the traveler, the vanguard, or any of the factions. I am my own Guardian and I do as I please." Zeph snarled. Oryx stared hard at Zeph as he pondered Zeph's response.

"Hmm, fair enough I suppose. I will allow you to leave here under 1 condition, stop working for the Traveller and the Vanguard, and work for me instead." Oryx growled in his deep scratchy voice.

"If it gets me out of here, then that's fine with me." Zeph yawned. "Under 1 condition though." Zeph said after thinking for a second. Oryx snarled at him and Zeph decided not to keep him waiting for fear of losing his head. "Give me 1 week to go say bye to my friends and you do nothing for that time and direct the taken in a way that makes it appear you are dead."

Oryx thought for a second before agreeing and sending Zeph back to the dreadnaught, where his ship was still waiting. Ghost started up the ship and transmatted Zeph onto it before setting a course for the Tower. "I don't know how they'll react to our new appearance or the taken that came with us." Ghost said, glancing at the two taken Knights behind Zeph. Zeph shrugged before docking his ship and signalling Ghost to transmat them out. Zeph landed outside his ship, flanked by the 2 Taken Knights and immediately he heard someone shout "TAKEN!" Within 10 secs they were surrounded by other Guardians, all with weapons pointed at the trio.

"By the Traveler's light guys, is that any way to great a fellow Guardian?" Zeph asked disapprovingly as he removed his helm to reveal his face. Out of nowhere, Zeph was slammed in the chest by an arc blast and was sent flying backwards into a wall. Someone pushed their way through the guardians and stalked their way towards him. Disoriented as he was, it took Zeph a second to realize it was his mentor, Ikora Rey. By the look on her face and the way she stormed towards him (quite literally due to the lightning crackling around her) he new he was in some deep shit now. Ikora stopped before him and took a deep breath.

"WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!" Ikora roared at him, "YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN KILLED AND WHY THE FUCK DID YOU BRING TAKEN WITH YOU?!"

"I was going to find Oryx, and those Taken are mine." Zeph answered feebly.

"What do you mean, they're yours?" Ikora responded, hear voice dropping to a near whisper, somehow managing to be scarier than when she was yelling.

"I beat Oryx, I put a shot through his filthy skull and painted the walls with his brains." Zeph lied, "That's why I came back."

Ikora narrowed her eyes before using her void energy to knock Zeph out, and proceeded to put him in a cell until they could verify his story.

 **Please leave reviews and tell me if you want to see more of this story. Also, I need ideas for new Guardians, so I'd appreciate it if you'd email me with their name, class, preferred subclass, gender, race(Awoken, Human, or Exo) armor and weapon loadouts(desolate armor is not allowed), shader, and attitude at Dovahkiin628 . But be warned, spam me and I'll ignore you. If you can't email me, also feel free to pm me. I need 17 total Guardians.**


	3. Chapter 2:The hidden can be found

**Chapter 2**

(4 days ago)

Baris-7 sat in the dock in his favorite spot, a ledge 20ft up that allowed him to observe everything and everyone that entered or exited. Coincidentally, he happened to see Zeph's ship leave the bay(on his way to kill Oryx but Baris-7 didn't know that) and just shrugged, figuring Zeph may have gotten a 'Secret' assignment. Baris-7 jumped thinking he'd heard someone yell his name but figured it was unlikely. Until the shout came again.

"Baaarrrrriiissss, where are you little Bear?" An Awoken female hunter called in a sweet yet annoying high pitched voice, as she skipped around the corner into the bay, earning herself disapproving looks from everyone around and a sigh of disgust from Baris-7, which resembled the sound of tires screeching, just quieter. Baris-7 considered ending that annoying hunter's life with his Suros JLB-47 rocket launcher but decided he didn't want to end up dead, or worse imprisoned. So, against his better judgement, he jumped down from the ledge, landing as if he'd barely fallen an inch, to greet the annoying newbie hunter, Nissa Jareel. "Oh good, I've found you!" Nissa exclaimed, sound a little relieved. "Your Warlock friend sent me to find you cause you weren't answering comms."

Baris-7 new what 'friend' she was talking about. The Warlock she was referring to was a little more than a friend, they were more like extensions of each other, two sides of the same coin. While Baris-7 was more quiet and reserved, the Warlock, Jace Balan, was talkative and open. Jace and Baris-7 had been to hell and back(almost literally a few times) standing back to back or shoulder to shoulder most of the time. Jace was normally an easy going, good tempered guy but Today wasn't a normal day. As Baris-7 walked into Jace's room, followed closely by Nissa, Baris-7 could tell exactly how pissed Jace was, it was evident by the sheer amount of Arc energy crackling around him.

"Calm down Jace." Baris-7 said in his deep baritone voice as he walked up to Jace and placed a hand on his shoulder, completely disregarding the Arc Energy.

"How can I calm down when one of the Warlocks I was assigned to watch, just left to take on Oryx, ALONE." Jace shouted, even more pissed than before. "Ikora has assigned US to go get him." Nissa choked on the water she was drinking, drawing confused looks from Jace and Baris-7.

"Where'd you get the water bottle?" Baris-7 asked Nissa.

"It came with this gun I got from Xur on our way outta the hanger." Nissa responded, slotting the water bottle back into her MIDA Multi-tool.

"You had enough Strange Coins for that?" Jace asked incredulously.

"No." Nissa sighed, "Xur gives me stuff in exchange for a few 'favors'."

"Oh? What kind of 'Favors'?" Baris-7 asked Nissa, narrowing his eyes at her.

"That's none of your business." Nissa snapped defensively. Baris-7 sighed, made a grinding noise, and turned back to Jace. Jace dismissed Nissa with a wave of his and a reminder to meet them at the hanger in 1hr.

Nissa went straight to her room, not to prepare for the trip, but to get the next item Xur had requested. Nissa knew that what she did for Xur wasn't just frowned upon, it could get her locked up and her Ghost taken away. Best case Scenario if she was caught was a swift execution.

Nissa opened the hidden panel in the wall by the vent to retrieve her gear for the next theft. Even in her past life, before she obtained her Hunter abilities, Nissa had been a master thief. Now, with her Hunter abilities, there was no way to catch her, unless you knew how to look. Nissa, now swathed in her stealth gear(including the stealth drive she stole from Cayde), removed the grating to the airvents and climbed inside, resecuring the grate behind her. Slowly and silently, Nissa moved through the vents until she found her target, Eris Morn's room.

According to Xur, Eris had several Hive artifacts she refused to sell to him even though Eris had no use for them. The artifact Xur had sent her to get was the power core to a hive super weapon that Eris had taken out before the weapon had been completely finished. Nissa quietly requested that her ghost scan for any life inside the room. After a thorough scan that came up empty, Nissa silently removed the ceiling grate leading into Eris's room and set it aside Nissa slowly lowered herself into Eris's room, and began looking around for the artifact. Eris's room was a disaster. Papers and folders were strewn everywhere and amidst the papers were random pieces of hive technology, even the bed was covered with stuff, except one spot where Eris obviously slept. Nissa searched every drawer, closet, and cupboard that she could see before looking for secret hiding spots. Within a few minutes she had found 5 or 6 different secret drawers in the walls which each had a collection of artifacts that Nissa proceeded to take a few of. Finally, Nissa found the secret drawer with the strange symbol from the artifact etched onto it. Nissa released the drawer and looked into the drawer, expecting to see the Core. Instead, all she saw was a piece of paper with the words, **Looking for something?** , written on it. At first, she didn't know what to think or do, but then she heard someone (probably Eris) unlock the door. Faster than a _Flash_ , Nissa shut the drawer and jumped back up into the vent and replaced the grate. Much to her dismay, Eris walked into the room and looked around. Shrugging her shoulders, clearly unable to tell that Nissa had been rummaging around, Eris began removing her armor and clothing. Carefully, so as not to be heard, Nissa moved back from the grate and made her way back to her own room. Nissa climbed out of the vent and stood up, taking a few steps forward, before she was roughly grabbed and pinned to the floor by someone much stronger than the average guardian. Pinned as she was, Nissa was unable to look up at the person that stopped in front of her and removed her bag of stolen artifacts. The contents of the bag were rolled out on the ground in front of her, bringing a familiar grinding sigh from her captor. Then Nissa heard the saddened voice of the last Guardian she wanted to hear right now, Baris-7.

"Eris's hive artifacts? What else have you stolen Nissa."

 **I still need 13 more Guardians, here's an Example of what I want.**

 **Name: Jace Balan**

 **Race: Human (Irish, light accent)**

 **Class: Warlock**

 **Subclass: Stormcaller**

 **Physical description: In shape and built like a Titan, beyond that is unknown because SPOILERS!**

 **Gender: Male**

 **Primary: Bad JuJu**

 **Secondary: random fusion rifle**

 **Heavy: Arc Edge**

 **Armor: All Spektar Gear with white chromas**

 **Shader: depends on situation(when not on mission, thunder devil)**

 **Attitude: Very Detail oriented, carefree, easygoing, and picky. Has an irrational fear of Eris Morn, claiming that she has a suppressive aura.**

 **Age of Resurrection: 29**

 **Pm your Guardian Ideas to me.**


	4. Chapter 3: New frenemies

Chapter 3

Edward stopped pretending to sharpen the never dull blade of the Void Edge he had laying in his lap(he was sitting cross-legged on top of a standard issue supply crate) and looked up to watch 2 Unfamiliar Guardians drag a female Guardian, (Nissa maybe? He never bothered to remember), out of the passageways that lead to her chambers holding her at the wrists and upper arm. Edward watched as the guardians dragged her towards the dungeon chambers, where... Edward blinked and looked over at the entryway on the opposite side of the room and back at the dungeon entrance. Edward knew with certainty that he had not heard nor seen Cayde cross the room, but there he was standing in front of the door to the dungeon, slowly shaking his head.

Edward jumped when he felt someone breath on his exposed neck(he had his helmet off) and snapped around, ready to strike, only to be confronted by the dark orange eyes and slightly insane smile of his current Fireteam leader, Ana.

"I really don't like it when you smile like that Ana. It always tells me when things just got worse for me." Edward sighed in his moderately baritone voice laden with his noticeable, but not thick, German accent. Ana giggled and tossed her head, flicking her short, dark brown hair to the side, only to have it settle back into it's previous position. Edward's heart skipped a beat whenever she did that, but he knew that she had that effect on every guy, even Lord Shaxx(Edward had asked, even though Ana didn't know). Edward marvelled at her beauty, from her cinnamon roll colored skin and her perfect curves to her beautiful eyes and perfect smile, and the insane personality it hid. Edward knew something no one else did though, Ana's armor did not do justice on her perfect curves. Her thick armor hid most of the curve in her perfect hips, breasts, and well everywhere really. How he knew this? Well, before they were stuck in the same Fireteam, Edward had slept with her a few times and damn did she taste good. Edward realized he was staring at Ana's breasts and snapped his eyes up to meet hers and saw the silent question within. Edward nodded and jumped down from his crate to follow Ana back to her room.

...

The Next Morning

Edward woke up, still in Ana's room, and looked at Ana's sleeping form. Ana was curled up against Edward with her arm draped across his well muscled, mysteriously tanned chest, breathing softly, looking as peaceful as can be. Slowly and quietly, trying not to wake Ana, Edward moved Ana's arm and got up. After taking a couple minutes to find his clothing and dress himself(he left his armor by the door) he wandered into her kitchen and began hunting for something to cook. It took awhile before he found something edible in her kitchen (almost everything was expired, Ana never cooked or ate in her room.) Edward had found some pancake mix in her cupboard and a gallon of fresh milk which she had clearly drunk from already. Edward measured out the right amount of mix and milk and fished a pan out of one the cupboards and set it on the burner. Edward mixed the pancake mix with the milk in a glass bowl and began making pancakes.

Ana awoke to the worst noise in history and the best smell ever, the noise of her buzzer Informing her that she had a job to do, and the smell of fresh pancakes. Ana untangled herself from the blankets, shut of the buzzer, and walked into her kitchen, still completely naked, and saw Edward standing with his back to her cooking pancakes. Ana suppressed a childish giggle and slid back into the bedroom to get dressed before Edward realized she was awake. After getting dressed she crept back into the kitchen to scare Edward but was confused when he wasn't there. Edward grabbed Ana's left arm from behind and hissed 'boo' but didn't get the reaction he was expecting. Instead of screaming, Ana instinctively brought her right fist into Edward's jaw with a devastating right hook that would have knocked even an unarmored Titan out. Lucky for Edward, he was wearing his armor, so all Ana did was hurt her hand. Ana scowled at Edward, silently plotting her revenge when he gestured towards the plate of pancakes on the table and spoke.

"You might want to eat quickly, we have something important to do."

Ana sighed at Edward and sat down to eat. 10 minutes later, Ana and Edward emerged from her room fully armored and set off to meet the newest addition to their Fireteam, Ryan 'Blaze' Jackson. Edward and Ana found Ryan sitting on EDWARD'S crate, which considerably irritated Ana.

"So, we've got the Leader," Ryan said, looking at Edward, "And some nice Eye-candy" Ryan finished, inspecting Ana. Ana's only response was to remove her helmet and quicken her stride until she was directly in front of Ryan.

"What did you call me?" Ana hissed at Ryan, clearly pissed.

"I said you are some sweet eye..." Ana's bone shattering right hook cut Ryan off before he could finish. The hit had been so sudden and fast that Ryan had had no time to prepare and was literally knocked for a loop when she hit him.

"Hey bitch, that's my boyfriend you just hit. Who the fuck do you think you are?" A female Titan yelled at Ana. Ana turned around and gave the female Titan the most terrifying homicidal glare Edward had ever seen. Ana stalked over to the female Titan and narrowed her eyes before snarling, "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" From behind Ana, Edward started making motions with his hands, warning the Titan to back off, cause while the Titan had a foot and a half and about 100lbs on Ana, Ana could probably kill everyone currently in a the room and no one would know they were dead until they died. Apparently, that Titan wanted to die because she leaned down a bit, got in Ana's face and snarled, "I was talking to you, whore." Ana snapped her head forward, connecting with, and breaking, the Titan's nose, before nailing her at the base of her chin with a vicious uppercut that lifted her off the floor a few inches. The Titan crumpled to the floor, extremely unconscious. Edward shook his head slowly and turned to watch Ryan struggle to his feet, dazzed and uncertain. Edward strode over to Ryan and helped him up.

"Lesson number 1," Edward stated "Do not piss off the Fireteam Leader. She can, and will, kill you where you stand." Ryan just groaned and rubbed his jaw. Edward tapped the communicator on his wrist and called Zavala. Zavala answered after the first ring and waited for Edward to speak.

"So," Edward began, "One of your precious Titans may need some medical attention."

"Why?" Zavala demanded angrily.

"She thought it was a good idea to piss off Ana." Edward said, very matter of fact.

"By the Traveler, I thought I told Cayde to control that wretched creature." Zavala snarled. Edward growled but said nothing as the medics arrived. The doctors lifted The Titan onto a stretcher and carried her away. Edward shook his head again and took Ryan by the upper arm and began dragging him towards his and Ana's meeting place. Edward told Ryan to meet them back here at noon tomorrow, pushed him into the middle of the room, and stalked off to his own Room.

...

Edward sat in the meeting room the next day, irritated that Ana had been put under house arrest for hitting the Titan, and irritated by Ryan, who was 15 minutes late already. Ryan walked into the room with his helmet under his arm and a donut in the other hand. In the blink of an eye, Edward brought his Dreg's promise sidearm up and fired a single shot, blasting the donut in Ryan's hand to pieces. Ryan stared at his hand for a second and looked at Edward.

"Lesson number 2," Edward growled, "If I say noon, your smug ass better show up at 11:50 or there'll be hell to pay."

"Whatever," Ryan snapped. Without warning Edward unholstered his Auto rifle 'Her Memory' and fired three shots at Ryan's chest. None of the bullets connected with Ryan though, because he had dodged to the right away from them. Edward stood up, reholstered his weapons unsheathed his Void Edge, and dropped into a fighting stance. Ryan drew his own Void Edge and dropped into the same stance. Like Edward and Ana, Ryan was a Nightstalker, so Edward knew the fight would be fairly even. Edward struck first, and then the sparing began. Edward and Ryan fought for the rest of the day, went to bed, got up, meet up at noon, and spared some more until 4:38pm when a commotion from the hanger distracted them. Edward and Ryan ran to the hanger to see what was going on, just in time to see the missing Warlock Zepheron, now covered in Taken energy, being carried into the dungeons. Ikora turned around and growled, "Everyone back to your duties, you will all be updated later." Edward sighed and headed towards Ana's room, he needed to check up on her anyway.

 **I feel that ending a chapter like this isn't the best way to do it, but everyone has been introduced (except that Titan, she'll be back later) and we're all caught up, meaning the story will really begin to progress now. I apologize for posting this so late, school gets in the way. I'm still accepting Guardian submissions so please send them to me.**


	5. Chapter 4: The Darkness Rises

**Chapter 4**

Zepheron awoke in a cell 3 hours after he had arrived. He didn't know how he knew it had only been 3 hours but he knew it had been 3 hours. Zeph thought he heard whispering but wasn't sure, so he quieted his breathing and made his way closer to the bars until he could barely make out the words, "Sweet mother, sweet mother, send your child unto me for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." Zeph shook his head when he recognized the voice, it was the voice of an old teammate of his who had been trapped in the hellmouth for a few weeks, went completely insane, and hadn't stopped mumbling that chant since she'd been found.

Zeph moved back in the near pitch black cell until he had his back to the wall and sighed.

"I'm surprised there was an empty cell to through me in with all the people Zavala sends down here." Zeph chuckled aloud. Zeph heard a rustling to his left and he say something sit up.

"There wasn't an empty cell moron, you got thrown in here with me." The form growled as it stood and moved towards him.

"Who might you be?" Zeph asked, genuinely curious.

"My name is Nissa Jareel." Nissa said as she walked into the only bit of light in the cell and sat down next to Zeph, "I think I've been in here for 3 or 4 days, I lost count after a few naps."

"Why are you in here?" Zeph asked, intrigued.

"I was appropriating items for my client." Nissa said defensively.

"So you were stealing. Who were you stealing from to get yourself thrown in the deepest darkest layer of the dungeons?" Zeph said, unsurprised.

"Eris Morn." Nissa sighed, feeling a little dumb know.

"That was your first mistake. Who was your client?" Zeph asked, trying to gauge her trustworthiness.

"Me." Zeph jumped when he heard the deep baritone voice outside the cell. Zeph climbed to his feet and used the one ability Oryx had given him that he knew how to use already, he summoned his Ghost from its containment cell and summoned his desolate armor so that he was wearing it the minute it was summoned. Then Zeph held out his hand and summoned a Taken hive knight sword.

"Took you long enough." Zeph's ghost grumbled. Zeph's ghost turned and looked at the figure outside the cell. "Good evening Xur, what are you doing down here?" His Ghost said politely.

"I came to release the Hunter. I'm not done with her yet." Xur growled.

"Could I interest you in freeing me and working with me?" Zeph inquired.

"How would I benefit from this?" Xur pried.

"I can cause a significant amount of chaos that will allow the Hunter to get what you want, get it to you, and you can be gone before they know that stuff is gone." Zeph said, silently hoping Xur would take his offer.

"Deal." Xur said and unlocked the cage, releasing the 2 Guardians.

….

Edward was sitting at the table in the meeting room(Ana was sitting in his lap with her head on his shoulder) waiting for Ryan to show up, when he heard gunshots outside the door. Ana jumped up and readied her Auto rifle, keeping it pointed at the door. Edward jumped to his feet and readied his Her Memory when something slammed into the double doors. The left door was thrown open and they saw Ryan, backing into the room while firing at something out of view. Ryan dashed back just as a Taken Thrall jumped at him. Ryan put a single shot into it's head and slammed the left door and put his back to it as the Thrall disintegrated.

Ana walked over to Ryan, grabbed his shoulder and shook him a little before kindly asking, "What's going on Ryan? How did Taken get to the Tower?" Ryan pulled himself away from Ana and began moving to open the door. Ana grabbed his arm and leaned a little closer to him, "What is going on?" Ana demanded again, the kindness gone from her voice. Ryan looked at her and took a deep breath before speaking.

"The warlock that went to go fight Oryx alone came back Ikora put him in the dungeon and he just showed up in the main hub and started summoning Taken." Ryan said without taking a breath, "I have to go back out there, Shannon is still out there."

"Who is Shannon?" Ana asked seriously.

"She's my fiance." Ryan answered. Ryan saw the confused look and sighed, "She's the Titan you knocked out a few days ago. Please let me go back to her."

"We'll all go together." Ana said, sounding very pissed, "I'm not letting the Taken kill that bitch, the only one who's gonna kill her is me." Ana growled and readied her weapon as Edward walked up behind her and to her left side. Ryan took up a position behind and to the right of Ana. Edward and Ryan reached out grabbed the handles to both doors.

"On three." Edward said, "One"

"Two" Ryan breathed.

"THREE" Ana shouted, surprising Edward and Ryan into throwing open the doors. The three of them started firing into the mass of Taken that were swarming a small group of three Guardians who were standing back to back in a triangle in the middle of the hoard, slowly losing ground and tightening the triangle. Edward recognized 2 of the Guardians in the group, Jace and Baris-7. Edward assumed that the Titan was Shannon and almost paid dearly for being distracted as a Taken Thrall jumped out from his left and he had to draw his Dreg's Promise Sidearm to kill it before it slashed him open. Edward stumbled as he took a shot from a Taken Dreg to his chest and nearly took another to the head but Ana turned and shot the Dreg. The second Ana killed the Dreg, a Taken Knight fired a shot into her back, knocking her several feet forward and throwing her from her feet into a wall. Ana hit the wall with a ringing crack and slumped to the ground unmoving. Enraged, Edward sprang to his feet and fired a shadowshot bolt into the Knight that shot Ana, tethering several more. Ryan took the hint and began firing his own shadowshot bolts into the Taken. In the middle of the hoard, Edward heard the sound of lightning and watched in astonishment as Jace activated Stormtrance and whipped out the rest of the hoard. The 4 standing Guardians looked around, expecting there to be more Taken but saw nothing. All of them looked in the direction of the hanger when they heard a ship coming from the hanger. Edward instantly recognized the Ship to be Zeph's by the taken energy swirling around it. Zeph's ship flew out of range before making a jump, vanishing from sight. Edward heard a groan from behind him and remembered Ana. Edward spun around pulled of his helmet and ran to Ana, just as she pulled of her own helmet.

Edward kneeled down by Ana and went to ask if she was alright, but she put a finger to his lips, quieting him. Ana pulled him a little closer and whispered, "Is Lord Shaxx okay?" Edward burst into laughter, glad that Ana was okay enough to be worrying about the man she was in love with. Edward helped Ana to her feet and inspected her back. Edward could clearly see where she'd been shot, the burned armor was the indication, but he could see that the shot had not harmed her. Edward walked in front of Ana and pulled out a penlight and shined it in her eyes like the doctor's did. Edward saw the telltale signs in her reaction that she had a pretty bad concussion but that seemed to be it. Edward took Ana's right hand in his own and realized he was wrong as Ana cried out in pain. A little more carefully, Edward inspected her arm and saw the her wrist was broken and a few of her fingers were also clearly broken.

Edward turned around and saw that Ryan and Shannon had removed their helmets and were fussing over each other, making sure they were alright. Edward then realized that there were only 5 Guardians around. Ana's right here, Ryan and Shannon are right there, Jace is over there…

"Where is Baris?" Jace and Edward asked simultaneously.

"He was right next to me when I activated Stormtrance." Jace said, confused.

"I have a proposition for you 5." A voice said from the direction of the ledge overlooking the city. The 5 of them turned towards the voice to see Zeph standing right at the ledge, holding an unconscious Baris-7 up over the edge with a hand around his throat. "I'll give you 2 options, join me and your friend lives, refuse and you all die."

Ana cleared her voice and asked the only question she had, "Where are the Vanguard?"

"I locked them in their rooms. They are unharmed. I just wanted to get you six out here." Zeph replied truthfully. "Who will step forward and accept my offer?"

"I will. Under one condition though." Ana said as she stepped forward, "No harm shall ever come to Lord Shaxx by you or any of your allies." Zeph nodded in agreement and looked at the rest of the group.

"Wherever Ana goes, I will follow. I swore that when we were joined into the same Fireteam." Edward said, stepping forward to stand beside Ana. Shannon and Ryan spit at Zeph's feet and said in unison, "Fuck you." Zeph looked at Jace and cocked his head to the side a little, questioning him.

Jace sighed and stepped forward before saying, "Fine, but Baris is joining too."

"Good." Zeph said before snapping his fingers, summoning a large black portal. "This leads to the deck of my ship, get moving. Oh, you might feel a little sick when exiting."

Ana walked up to the portal, took a deep breath and passed through, followed immediately by Edward, Jace, and Zeph(who was still holding Baris). Zeph was meet by an amusing sight when he got to the other side, the guardians were trying to wipe the Taken energy from their armor to no avail.

"It doesn't come off you know." Zeph chuckled, "If it did do you think I'd still be wearing the stuff?" Ana looked at Zeph and narrowed her eyes.

"Would you have actually killed us if we'd refused?" She asked curiously.

"No." Zeph responded truthfully, "I don't actually want you dead. I'm currently under Oryx's thumb and I'd like to get out from under it without losing my abilities. You guys should have acquired the same abilities I have now, the portal you went through was actually a more voluntary version of the way Oryx Takes other beings. So I sorta have control over you know."

"What do you mean, control over us?" Ana demanded, narrowing her eyes. Zeph shrugged and pointed at a box.

"Ana, shoot that box with your shotgun." Zeph ordered. Ana tried to tell him to piss of, but instead she pulled out her shotgun and shot the box with it against her will. "All of you, sit down where you are." Zeph ordered. Once again, no matter how much they tried to disobey all the Guardians that he had brought with him instantly sat down.

Nissa skipped into the room and froze when she saw the Guardians Zeph had brought with him. "We have almost reached our destination." Nissa said haltingly, "Xur was transported to his ship about 5 minutes after we came out of our first jump." Zeph nodded and waved Nissa, who was covered in the same Taken energy the rest of them were, away. Nissa scuttled back into the cockpit.

"Why did you try to kill us with those Taken?" Jace asked as he helped Baris-7(who was just waking up) to his feet.

"I summoned them, waited for you all to get out there, but when I tried t banish them I found that I could not. Oryx must have found a way to remove his taken from me. Sorry about that." At that moment, Zeph's ghost floated into the room and made a noise at Zeph, then floated back into the cockpit. "Alright guys, prepare to be transmatted, you're going to meet my ally."

Before any of them could comment, they were transmatted off Zeph's ship. The 5 of them landed on a planet that was unfamiliar to all but Zeph. Zeph lead them into a small building where a hooded figure sat in a chair. "Guys, meet my ally." Zeph said. The hooded figure stood, turned towards the group and removed her hood.

"Off all the people you could ally yourself with, why would you Ally yourself with HER?" Ana demanded.

 **I know that no one likes cliffhangers, but there are going to be a LOT of them throughout this story. It makes the story more interesting. There will be a considerable amount of Fighting in the next few chapters.**


	6. Chapter 5 part 1: Hellmouth 20

**Chapter 5**

"Why would they leave with that traitor?" Ryan asked Shannon for the millionth time since the portal had closed. Shannon sighed and shook her head at Ryan. "What?" Ryan demanded.

"You know as much about it as I do. They could have been working together from the start or this all could have just been an elaborate prank." Shannon snapped at Ryan.

"Hey Shannon, Blaze, what they hell happened here?" Cayde demanded as he stormed out of the hallway leading to the vanguard's rooms.

"The Warlock in the Dungeons escaped and summoned a ton of Taken. We fought them off with a few other Guardians." Shannon answered.

"We killed all the Taken and then the Warlock showed up and convinced the other 4 Guardians to go with him, including 2 of your 'favorites', Ana and Edward." Ryan said.

The three of them jumped when they heard a scream of rage from the hallway leading to Eris's room. Cautiously, Cayde, Shannon, and Ryan walked down the hallway and stopped outside Eris's door, which was thrown wide open. The 3 of them stared in surprise as they saw Eris(clearly freshly showered) standing in the middle of her room. Every secret drawer had been pulled out and emptied, every cabinet was open and empty, and every artifact Eris had collected over the past 2 years was gone, including the Core(which had been in a pocket hidden in Eris's armor.)

"WHERE ARE MY ARTIFACTS?!" Eris screamed at Cayde.

"I don't know, I've been locked in my room." Cayde sputtered quickly, holding his hands up and taking a step back.

"Where is the Hunter that was taking my things?" Eris demanded.

"Uh, she's gone, along with Zeph, Ana, Edward, Jace, and Baris-7." Cayde answered.

"I'm going to KILL THEM!" Eris screamed, "NOW GO AWAY!" Eris slammed the door in Cayde's face, making him jump.

"Watch out, I can calm her down." A Titan said as he walked up behind Cayde.

"Where've you been Gate?" Cayde snapped.

"Locked in my room." Gate answered. Gate pushed past Cayde and knocked on Eris's door.

"I SAID GO AWAY!" Eris screamed from the other side of the door.

"Oh come on, let me in Eris." Gate said. Eris yanked open the door, ready to strike whoever was on the other side, saw Gate, and immediately lost some of her steam. Eris stepped back and let Gate through, turned to give Cayde a homicidal look, then slammed the door. Cayde shook his head and muttered 'Calm her down. Yeah right.' started walking away from Eris's room, motioning for Ryan and Shannon to follow.

"Since you guys are currently the only Guardians off duty, you will be cleaning up the mess in the center hall." Cayde informed them. Ryan and Shannon groaned as they entered the main hall(it's not really a hall, it's a large open space where the cryptarch and vaults are) and saw the destruction that had been caused. Ryan and Shannon sighed and began to clean up the disaster that was left from the fight.

….

"What do you mean, why would I ally myself with her? She's the best one for the job." Zeph said confused at the surprised looks from the group.

"Well I don't like her." Ana growled.

"What have I done to you?" The Stranger snapped back.

"Remember that one hunter you deemed 'Unworthy'? The one you LEFT BEHIND IN A HIVE CESSPOOL?! DO YOU REMEMBER?!" Ana screamed, enraged.

"Yes, I remember." The Stranger said, slumping down into her chair. "There was nothing I could do for you."

"SO INSTEAD OF AT LEAST TRYING," Ana screamed, "YOU LEFT ME DOWN THERE TO DIE! I WAS STUCK IN THAT CESSPOOL FOR TWO WEEKS BEFORE ERIS FOUND ME AND DRAGGED ME OUT!"

"I'm sorry I left you, If I'd gone done to try and save you, I'd be dead." The stranger sighed. Ana growled and turned her back to the Stranger.

"Now," The Stranger said, "Why do you still have that filth on your armor?" Before they could respond, The Stranger threw a strange glowing golden powder onto their armor. Zeph watched in surprise as the Taken energy vanished from the Guardian's armor, and then realized his armor was still covered in the Taken energy.

"What about me?" Zeph asked.

"I got you with the powder as well, but your armor just absorbed it. You were directly taken by Oryx, only killing him will remove it." The Stranger said. "By the way, my name is…"

….

Three days later, Ana, Edward, Baris-7, and Jace landed the Fallen Ship they had stolen in the Tower Hanger and prepared to depart the ship. The four of them stepped off the ship, Ana with a bag over her shoulder, and stopped as they were surrounded by other Guardians. Eris pushed her way through and walked up to them, stopping mere inches from Edward.

"I shall ask you once, and your answer will determine whether you live." Eris snarled, "Where. Are. My. Hive. Artifacts."

"Right here." Ana said holding out the bag. "Zeph had 'helped' the thieving Hunter steal the artifacts and then replicated them and gave her the replicas." Eris snatched the bag and started going through the bag, inspecting the artifacts. Finally, Eris sighed and slung the bag over her shoulder.

"Thank you. I feel that Cayde and Ikora will want to see you." Eris said before gliding away. Eris stopped by a Titan and spoke to him for a second before she handed him the bag and they began moving towards her room. The four Guardians, escorted by 20 others, made their way to the Vanguard's war room.

"MY HUNTER'S ARE NOT TRAITORS." The four Guardians jumped when they heard Cayde shouting, sounding very pissed.

"They left with a Thief and a Criminal. How are they not Traitors?" Zavala sighed as the four of them walked into the room.

"To start off with," Ana began, "A few of your Titans would be dead right now if it weren't for us, we recovered all Eris's artifacts and have returned them to her, and we just showed up with a Ship full of fallen info. Specifically, a Devil Ketch,." Zavala, Ikora, and Cayde stared at Ana for a few seconds before Ikora spoke.

"She doesn't seem like a Traitor to me. Just seems like herself. I vote to let them go." Ikora chuckled.

"Where is the traitor they left with?" Zavala growled. Ikora made a low growling noise in the back of her throat.

"Zeph is a Warlock like me, not a traitor. He is trying to bring down Oryx." Jace snapped.

"He said he already killed Oryx." Zavala snapped.

"AND HE LIED!" Ikora shouted. "He wanted to get these Guardians into his circle. He is considerably paranoid so he goes through weird processes like this." Zavala huffed and slumped back in his chair, clearly giving up.

"What's up? Is there a Mission to…do..." Ryan stopped talking and walking at the same time as he saw the four Guardians standing by Cayde. Shannon walked in behind Ryan and shrugged as she saw the four of them.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, let's get to your first Mission." Cayde announced.

"We're sending you six to an unexplored planet, recently discovered by Eris. One of her Artifacts, when powered with Void energy it opens a portal to an unknown Planet. You have 3 days to prepare yourselves and I want you back here at 6am on the fourth. Dismissed." The six Guardians scattered to their rooms and began packing everything they thought they would need. They wanted to get everything ready ahead of time so that if they needed anything they would have time to find it. For the first 2 days Ana stayed locked up in her dorm and refused to open the door, even for Edward, which was mildly irritating but he could deal with it. Although, several times throughout those 2 days Edward would see Ana running from her dorm to the hangar or Eris's room and come back with an armful of random junk and lock herself back up in her room. In the afternoon of the second day Edward got bored and went to bug Eris. Edward found Eris sitting on a crate in her usual spot in the vanguard's hall with a collection of random Hive artifacts around her messing with her tablet. Edward reached out and picked up the nearest artifact to him, a small oddly shaped battery like device about the size of a tennis ball that seemed to pulsate in his hand.

"What's this do?" Edward asked as he turned the object over in his hands, trying to figure out what it did.

"It's a power core used to power a hive sniper. It should be dead." Eris replied without looking up from her tablet.

"Supposed to be dead? Then why is it pulsing? The longer I hold it the harder it pulses." Edward inquired as he concentrated on the gradually increasing pulse, silently commanding it to stop. Edward nearly dropped the artifact when it responded to his command and stopped pulsing. Edward looked at Eris and saw that she was staring him down, clearly studying him.

"Is it listening to you?" Eris asked calmly, "Did the pulsing stop when you wanted it to?"

"Y..yes." Edward said, feeling intimidated by Eris's unblinking stare.

"Then keep it." Eris snapped, "It wouldn't respond for me so It clearly wants you."

"What do I do with it?" Edward asked, taking a step back.

"What do you think? Are you as dimwitted as some of the other's here? It's a weapon core, make a weapon with it." Eris growled. Edward nodded and quickly moved away before he really pissed off Eris. Edward went down to the hangar and found Amanda Holliday. Without a word exchanged between the two Amanda knew what Edward wanted and went in search of parts and pieces for him. Amanda came back with a large box of parts and held it out to Edward. Edward nodded his head in thanks and quickly transferred some glimmer to Amanda before taking the box and heading back to his room. As Ana had done, Edward locked himself in his room and began building himself a new weapon. Edward stayed up through the night of the second day and through most of the third day till he heard a knock on his door. Edward quickly had his ghost dematerialize his half-finished weapon and went to answer his door. Edward opened his door and would have fallen over in surprise if hadn't been holding onto the door. Standing outside his door was Ana, but not the way she normally was. Ana was wearing a knee length red dress that hugged all of her curves and sparkled as she moved. It took Edward a second to tear his eyes away from her chest and the low v-neck of her dress to notice that she was wearing heels and had a small band around her ankle. After a few seconds Edward looked up at Ana's face and was extremely surprised to catch a flicker of doubt pass through her eyes.

"Hot damn." Edward breathed, "Am I to be blessed with the presence of such a beautiful creature in my home?" Edward stepped back and allowed Ana to enter. Ana smiled and seemed to glide her way into Edward's room, her hips swaying back and forth as she moved. Edward closed the door and moved to stand behind Ana. Edward put his hands on Ana's waist and she leaned back into him.

"I'm scared." Ana admitted.

"You? Scared? Of what?" Edward asked jokingly.

"I'm not in the mood for your jokes, Edward." Ana growled. Edward sat on the couch and pulled Ana down into his lap.

"You have nothing to fear, I will never let anything hurt you. I swear it on my life." Edward whispered.

"I love you Edward. You know I can't dedicate my whole heart to you but I'll give you as much as I can." Ana admitted, "I am scared of losing you on our mission. I couldn't keep going without you."

"Sure you could, you just don't want to. I get it, I don't want to lose you either, and I know I won't." Edward responded truthfully, "I know that you are strong enough to take down the strongest of Titans, fast enough to outrun almost every other Hunter, and smart enough to outwit the smartest of Warlocks."

"Almost every other Hunter? Who do you think is faster than me?" Ana growled playfully.

"I'm faster than you, and I have a higher kill count." Edward chuckled as he began running his hands up and down Ana's sides, causing her to shiver.

"I need a shower." Ana mumbled. Edward stood up, lifting Ana up as he went, drawing a squeak of surprise from Ana. Edward carried Ana into the bathroom and set her down on her feet. Ana reached behind herself and tried to unzip her dress but could not reach, so Edward turned her around and unzipped the back of the dress for her. Ana wiggled out of the dress, leaving her in only her underwear and leaned over the tub to turn on the water. Ana straightened up and turned around to face Edward and began undressing him. Edward waved her back and finished disrobing and stuck a foot into the now full tub of steaming water. Slowly Edward eased into the tub and sighed as he leaned back. Ana shed her underwear and climbed into the tub, seating herself atop Edward and leaned down to whisper in his ear.

"I will make you beg for mercy when I'm done with you."

….

Cayde looked at his watch, which read 6:30am, and then looked up at the 5 guardians standing in front of him and voiced everyone's question.

"Where's Ana?" Cayde asked.

"Probably getting a bunch of random equipment." Edward stated. They waited another 5 minutes and sighed as they heard Ana walking back into the room grumbling about something. The 5 Guardians turned to look at Ana and were surprised to see her wearing a personally modified set of Armor. Most of the modifications were to her Heliopause Mask and Khepri's sting Gauntlets. Edward knew what the modifications did, she had pulled off the large air purifier over the mouth and had installed a much smaller one that was hardly noticeable. The less visible modification was the one she'd made to the lens. She had removed the previous lenses and installed newer ones that act as highly advanced scanners and could allow her to see in pitch black and see Hive, no matter how they were hiding. Her gloves had been modified with a strange bunch of wires and odd discs with wires leading up to the end of the scarabs pincers. Edward knew exactly what they did, but by the look from the other's they did not.

"Like it?" Ana asked waving her right arm, the one with all the modifications on it.

"What does it do?" Ryan asked, actually curious.

"It allows me to channel my Arc and Void abilities as a Hunter more effectively. If I swap out this disk," Ana paused to release the clasp on the small disk on the scarab and pulled another from her pocket, inserting it and re clasping it where the other was, "With this, it allows me to channel my abilities as a Warlock. I haven't figured out how to make one that allows me to use my abilities as a Titan. And for some obscure reason it doesn't work on my solar abilities at all. It does switch out much easier, theres a mechanism that does it I just hadn't loaded it yet."

"That sounds, uh, useful. I guess" Ryan stuttered.

"Sounds badass actually. Blaze over there is just being dense." Cayde said. "Are you ready to go now?"

"Yes." The six of them said in unison. Cayde reached over and picked up a small perfectly round orb. It was solid black except for 3 green spots on the top like a hive's Eyes.

"I'm going to toss this up in the air, when I do, hit it with your shadowshot, Edward." Cayde instructed. Edward nodded and Cayde tossed the orb, Edward put as much energy as could into his shadowshot and hit the orb. At first the orb did nothing and fell to the ground, but then it began to glow and shake before it levitated up to about chest height. "Step back." Cayde warned as the orb began to glow brighter and make a low humming noise.

The six of them stepped back and watched in awe and fear as the humming stopped and the orb seemed to draw all the light it had emitted and the light around it in. With a loud BANG a black substance shot out of the orb and formed into a round doorway like shape. The six of them stared at the portal, unsure of what to do, when the substance began to change color. It went from black, to red, to blue, finally settling on a hive like green.

"There, portal is stable. You can go through now, but let me warn you. This is a one way portal, once you cross over, you can't come back till you contact us. Anyone want to quit now?" Cayde asked. The six of them shook there heads and began going through the portal. Edward first, then Jace, Baris-7, Ryan, and Shannon. Ana stopped before she crossed through and l took second to compose herself.

Ana swallowed and stepped into the portal. Ana had experienced nothing like it before. It was like being pulled apart into millions of pieces and being dragged across concrete. To Ana, the travel lasted a long time, but it really only took a few seconds for the portal to spit her out and shut again. Ana landed on her stomach in a large circular chamber, which was shrouded in absolute darkness except for the small circle of light surrounding the guardians from a large opening way up in the ceiling, probably hundreds of feet up. Ana got up onto her hands and knees and looked up into the barrel of a gun that was pointed at her head. Ana looked up at the person holding the gun and stared straight into Ryan's eyes.

"I don't know how you convinced them you weren't a traitor but you don't have me convinced." Ryan spat. Ana looked past Ryan and saw Shannon using her Ward of Dawn to somehow keep the others contained. Slowly, Ana stood up and stared down Ryan, who began to shake a little in fear.

"This isn't the place for this." Ana's ghost whispered in her ear. "Look around. We're in a Hive cavern, and my sensors indicate that we are surrounded by thousands of them."

"Ryan, could we do this later?" Ana asked as she flipped on the Hive scanners. Immediately after turning on the Scanner, a mixture of dread and absolute terror filled Ana as she completely forgot about Ryan and stared at the hundreds, no thousands of hive surrounding them, laying just out of sight. "Shannon? Would you mind expanding your Ward? I'd tell you why but that would probably end in our deaths." Shannon looked at Ryan and he shrugged. Shannon began expanding the Ward, and Ana ran inside the orb and hugged Edward. Ryan and Shannon walked into the Ward curious to see what Ana would say.

"What's wrong Ana?" Edward asked, worried about her.

"They're everywhere. So many of them. We're going to die. Oh god, I don't wanna die." Ana spluttered. Ana's ghost materialized and made a sort of sighing noise.

"Alright, listen up," Ana's Ghost began, "We are currently at the bottom of a Hive pit, like the Hellmouth but not quite as deep. According to my sensors, we are currently surrounded by more than 50,000 sleeping Hive and I know there are probably Hundreds more hidden from my sensors. The platform we are standing is an elevator like structure, but it's not currently working. On my own, I cannot fix it, but I think if all six Ghosts present helped, It may only take us 10 minutes or so. There are lamp like structures around that we will have to activate to work on the platform. The second the lights come on, all the Hive around us will wake and attack. So be ready. Edward there is a vial of liquid in a pocket hidden on the inside of Ana's left thigh. The liquid it contains will banish most of the fear from Ana and make her able to fight. Put it in the slot on her air purifier and it will be turned to vapor and she'll inhale it. Tell us when you're ready." As Ana's Ghost finished her speech, the other 5 guardians Ghosts materialized and floated next to Ana's. Edward ran his hand along the inside of Ana's thigh until he felt the small vial about midway down. Edward reached into the small pocket and removed the vial. It was about the size of a fingernail, and had a strange mark scratched onto it. Edward reached up and unsealed her air purifier, releasing a hiss and causing her to begin to gasp for air. Quickly, Edward inserted the vial and sealed her air purifier, bringing a massive gasp from Ana. After a few seconds, Ana stopped quivering and relaxed and stood.

"Everyone ready to fight for your lives?" Edward asked jokingly. Everyone smiled grimly at his joking tone and nodded.

"Prepárate a morir." Ana whispered. Drawing odd locks from everyone except Edward.

"She said, Prepare to Die." Ana's Ghost said. "For some reason, while the anti-fear drug is in her system, she only speaks her native language."

"Initiating repair, be ready." Edward's Ghost stated. The ghosts began their work, turning on ALL the lights in the cavern and brightening the entire place. The Guardians finally got to see where they were. They were standing in the middle of a massive stone chamber with hundreds of Markings, scratches, and carvings everywhere. None of them noticed, but if they'd look hard enough, they would have seen that all the markings and carvings were clearly Human in nature. The thing that drew the attention of the Guardians the most were the hundreds of thousands of Hive everywhere, waking up and getting up. In unison, all 6 Guardians tossed their grenades out into the crowd, causing massive chaos and drawing the attention of all the hive in the room. The six Guardians positioned themselves in a circle on the platform, and began firing into the crowd of Hive as the Hive charged. Every Bullet fired dropped a Hive, but for every thrall that went down, there were 5 more to fill it's place. The Thrall were slowly gaining ground, trying to get into any openings. The Thrall's opening came soon, when Ana's auto rifle clicked empty and she found she was out of clips. Quickly, Ana snapped out her void edge and impaled the nearest thrall. Ana flexed her wrist, hitting the button on the scarab, and flipped the disk to Warlock. Ana threw the lightning grenade into the thrall, and activated her version of stormtrance, which sacrificed some power for longevity and chaining abilities. Ana heard the telltale sound of the others using their own supers after the click of their weapons on empty. Their Supers lasted a single minute, and when they ran out, Ana, Edward, and Ryan began using their Void edge, Shannon began using her Raze-Lighter, Jace pulled out his Arc Edge, and Baris-7, swordless as he was, just prepared to punch the hell out of anything that came his way with his Titan Strength. The six of them punched and slashed, Hive blood splattering everywhere, grunts of effort from the Guardians trying to survive, and the faint sound of the Ghosts messing with the machinery.

"Only 5 more Minutes." Baris-7's ghost said. Ana heard a grunt from next to her and turned slightly to see a Thrall had knocked Baris-7 over and was clawing at his face. Ana swung her blade and beheaded the Thrall, knocking it off Baris-7. Baris-7 went to jump back up but a Thrall grabbed hold of his left ankle and pulled. Ana tried to reach for Baris-7 but was beat there by Jace. The Thrall dragged Baris-7 into the hoard and was quickly followed by an enraged Jace. Jace got a foot into the hoard before Ana reached out and dragged him back. Jace turned to yell at Ana but a shake of her head stopped him. Ana saw Baris-7 standing again, fighting off the hoard surging at him, but was being slowly engulfed. Baris-7 made eye contact with Jace and signaled to him that there was nothing Jace could do, then Baris-7 used his super and shouted as loud as he could, Drawing the attention of the Hive away from The rest of the group.

"We're done." The Ghosts said. Baris-7's Ghost turned and located Baris-7 in the hoard, then transmatted him onto the elevator, confusing the Hive for a few seconds which was just long enough for Ana to hit the activation switch and send the elevator rocketing up. As they ascended on the elevator, the Guardians tried to ignore the grinding and groaning of the elevator while they retrieved their extra clips from their ghosts and began loading and reloading their weapons. As the elevator neared the top of its ascent the grinding and groaning grew louder, now accompanied with a loud screech of protest as the brakes kicked in. The elevator slowly ground to a halt at the surface before letting out a hiss of steam and going silent. The six guardians stood where they were for a seconds, looking out at the terrain of this new planet, until they felt the platform underneath them move. A loud screeching sound from the elevator platform caused the guardians to jump, and then bolt for land as the platform began to slowly fall back in. Jace, Ana, Edward, Ryan, and Shannon made it off the platform began to fall, but Baris-7 had been slower to react and wasn't all the way there. In a last ditch effort to make it, Baris-7 pushed off the platform and leaped towards solid ground, but didn't make it all the way. Baris-7 slammed into the side of the hole and began to slide backwards into it, and had his fall halted as Edward and Ana sprung forward and grabbed on to his arms and dragged him back up. The 3 of them fell onto the ground, Baris-7 all the way on land now, and tried to calm their racing hearts.

"Can we never do that again?" Baris-7 groaned.

"Gladly." Edward chuckled. Ana started to laugh and even though no one knew what she was laughing about her laughter was infectious and had everyone laughing after a few seconds.

"We should probably get as far from here as we can and set up camp." Ana said, trying to stifle her laughter. After a few more minutes, the six Guardians regained their composure and began to take stock of their surroundings. They were standing in the middle of a massive canyon, surrounded by solid black mountains on all sides with strange purple grass covering the ground. There were odd blue and red trees spread out around the canyon. Ana gasped, drawing the attention of the others and looked up to see what Ana was staring at. The six guardians as the sky above them began slowly shifting from the normal blue to a glowing green color and back again. The six of them looked at each other and set out jogging across the canyon, in the direction of the smallest mountain. Roughly 2 hours later, they had left the pit far behind and had covered about an eighth of the distance to the mountain, and they knew they had covered at least 24 miles, when they decided to set up camp as the sky darkened, clearly heading for night.

"Hey Ryan?" Ana began, after camp was set up and they had somehow got a fire going. All the others had gone to sleep except for Ryan and Ana.

"What?" Ryan yawned, staring up at the pitch black night sky.

"Why does Cayde keep calling you Blaze?" Ana asked, yawning as well.

"Oh that. When I was resurrected I took down a couple fallen and chucked a grenade into the engine of their ship. It sorta exploded. I guess a Fallen named Riksis was on the ship. Still have no clue who he is but I don't like him." Ryan explained. "In short, I made things explode and set a considerable amount of things on fire in the process." Ryan looked over and saw Ana struggling not to fall over due to how tired she was. "Go lay down. I'll keep first watch." Ana crawled over to where Edward was sleeping and wormed her way into his sleeping bag, snuggling up against him. Ana drifted off to sleep and began to drift towards an area in her mind she had shut out a long time ago, her past.

 **And that's where I'm ending this chapter. I don't think I'm very good at cliffhangers so I'm not going to try to force one. Sorry for taking so long with this chapter, I kept deleting what I'd written because I didn't like it. So here you go, I'm happy with the way this has gone and I'm going to start working on Chapter 5 part 2 as soon as I can. This will be a 3 part chapter. Part 2 will be about Ana's past and her fear of the Hive.**


	7. Chapter 5 part 2: The Past Discovery

**Chapter 5**

7 Years ago….

The Ghost moved as quietly as it could through the night, knowing that the Hive were always close, hiding in every shadow on this dark planet. If things were different, the Ghost would not have even approached this planet, but according to its sensors the Ghosts guardian was on this planet. Suddenly, the Ghost's sensors went off, indicating it had found its Guardian, and the Ghost stopped, stunned by the fact that all these decades of hunting, it had finally found it's Guardian. As quickly as it could, the Ghost began the resurrection process, and for the first time in decades after her death, Ana took a breath.

Ana gasped, unsure of where she was, or for that matter, who she was, and sprang to her feet, looking for a way to run in her panicked state.

"Calm down, if you freak out they'll hear you. You are unarmed and can't fight them off." the Ghost whispered to Ana as it floated into her sight. "I'm your Ghost, I'm here to guide and help you. We need to find a ship and get off this planet as quickly as possible. Hold out your hand." Ana held out her hand and the Ghost landed on it before dematerializing. "I'm still here, only you can hear me now." The Ghost whispered to Ana, "We need to run, now. The Hive are coming for us." At the mention of the Hive, a memory returned to Ana from when she was a kid. Her mother getting gutted by the Hive while Ana hid in the closet, trying not to cry. Driven by fear and despair, Ana began to run. The second she began to run, she heard a collective shriek come from behind her and she knew what it meant. The chase was on. Ana pushed herself as hard as she could, jumping and climbing over rocks and railings, slamming her way through crumbling doors and jumping through broken windows in the remains of a human city. Ana looked over her shoulder for a second and saw the bright glowing green eyes of an acolyte joining the chase. Ana turned around and saw a Hive Knight step out from behind a building about 30 feet in front of her, and swung its sword at her head. Ana dropped into a slide and slide between the Knights legs and sprang back up to continue running, only stumbling a little. On and on she ran, moving farther and farther away from the pursuing Hive, until she could run no more and collapsed to the ground exhausted. Ana rolled onto her back and stared up at the sky and three suns now rising from the horizon, gasping for breath the whole time.

"What happened to my home? Why am I back here? I remember my death, how am I alive?" Ana gasped, still out of breath.

"According to my databases, this planet was overrun by the Hive 500 years ago." Her Ghost responded, "I am not sure why you were here because you appear nowhere in any database. For your final question, you are alive because of me, you are my Guardian and I am your Ghost. I am here to assist and revive you during your fight against the forces of darkness." Ana slowly and shakily climbed to her feet and began looking around. Ana was standing in the middle of what used to be a children's playground, the broken swings and crumbling and decayed jungle gym told her everything. As Ana looked around, her eyes landed on the only thing still intact. It was a small clown statue that was covered in filth and its paint had been worn down by the wind over centuries. Ana felt a cold chill go up her spine and stamped down the fear the clown brought up from within. As quickly as she could, Ana moved away from the playground and the eyeless clown with it's too big smile. Ana began walking through the dead and decayed town, letting her feet guide her to a place she knew not where. After a few minutes, walking through the crumbling decayed town, looking around at the rooting wooden structures that had collapsed and been overgrown, the fallen brick and crumbled cement buildings all grey and brown with dirt and weathering that had been partily overgrown by the blue and green vines, the cracked and destroyed sidewalk and road with the bright purple grass peeking through, with the odd blue and red trees. Ana stopped in front of a building that was barely standing, but was being kept up by a few steel pillars that refused to break. Another one of Ana's memories came charging to the front of her and her father, building these pillars after a bad storm had nearly knocked down the building.

"This was my dad's gun store." Ana whispered. Ana walked up and pushed on the metal door, which didn't budge an inch. Ana turned the door handle and slammed her shoulder into the door, like her father used to do, and the door popped open a little. Ana pushed the door, allowing it to slowly swing open making an insufferable screech as it did so till it came to a stop. Ana walked in and looked around at the rotted wooden shelves and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. Unsure of what she was doing, Ana allowed her instincts to lead her to the back room and to a shelf that looked different from all the others. Ana reached out and pushed down the part of the shelf she knew was a switch to open her father's secret room and turned when she heard the creaking screech of the secret door opening. Ana walked over to the safe and looked inside. Sitting inside the safe was her father's prize possession. A gun that he built himself from Hive, Fallen, and Cabal technology, that had other pieces of tech that Ana and her father had built. Ana reached in and grabbed the gun, which reacted the way it always did when she touched it. The gun seemed to buzz and vibrate in her hand and the core in the center began to spin, awaking the centuries old weapon of destruction. Ana hugged the gun to her chest and walked out of the building.A movement in her peripheral vision caused Ana to snapped the gun up and swung around to point it to her left but saw nothing. Ana shook her head and lowered the weapon. Ana held the gun out and allowed her Ghost to dematerialize it and keep it, somewhere. Ana sighed and began moving down what was left of the street towards a large chapel like building. Ana heard a loud crunch as something heavy landed behind her. Ana spun around to see a Hive Knight, only about a foot away from her, swing out from behind a building, thrusting it's sword out at Ana as it went. A strange burning Sensation began in Ana's gut and chest, and she looked down to stare at the sword that had impaled her.

"Oh." was all Ana said before the Knight lifted his blade up, with Ana still on the end of it, and made a strange choking cough like noise as Ana slowly and painlessly slid down the blade till she was fully impaled. Struggling to remain conscious, Ana brought her head up and spat blood in the Knight's face, and was rewarded with a quick death as the Knight tore her throat out in rage.

Now….

Ana snapped awake and nearly cried out in fear but managed to contain her reaction by burying her face in Edward's shoulder.

"What's wrong Ana?" Edward whispered, awkwardly shifting around in the sleeping bag to look at Ana.

"Nothing, it was just a nightmare." Ana whispered back. Ana stared up at the pitch black, two mooned night sky and had a shiver go down her spine. Ana could have sworn that she remembered those moons. It was probably her imagination. Ana curled back up against Edward and slowly drifted off to sleep once more.

7 years ago….

Ana jumped to her feet and looked around, unsure of what had just happened.

"Don't be surprised, I can resurrect you more than once. This is going to be a normal thing for you soon enough. Now that doesn't mean that dying doesn't hurt, so I'd advise you not to die and we'll be fine." Her Ghost said in her ear. Ana just nodded and peeked around the corner. The Knight was still standing there, looking confused, and splattered with her blood. In a sudden fit of rage, Ana jumped out from her hiding spot, sprang up in the air and pulled her arm back as if she were notching an arrow on a bow. To her complete surprise, she summoned a bow made of a strange purple and black material that seemed to writhe in her grip, and fired an arrow from it, which struck the Knight and disintegrated it completely. Ana landed on her feet and watched as the bow vanished from her hand.

"I see." Ana's ghost muttered to itself.

"You see what?" Ana asked mystified.

"You are a Nightstalker." Her Ghost responded. Ana pursed her lips and lightly nodded, acting as if she knew what her Ghost was talking about. Ana looked up and stared at the ever changing color of the sky and sighed. Ana watched as the suns began descending on the horizon and the moons began to rise.

"We have to hide, most of the Hive sleep during the day so they'll be waking up now. GO!" Ana's Ghost hissed urgently. So, Ana did what she'd always done best, run. At first she tried to pace herself, but then she heard the howling shriek from behind her and she began to pick up speed. Ana glanced over her shoulder just in time to see a horde of thrall come pouring out of fallen buildings and small caves, who all then turned towards her and began to chase her once more. Ana turned back around and dropped into an all out sprint for her life. To her dismay, the town and it's protection of rubble to dodge around and hide in to slow the Hive ended too soon, and she was forced to run out onto the wide open plains by more Thrall coming in from the sides to join the rest of the horde. Ana knew that she could keep up her all out sprint for as long as she needed, but she knew that the Hive could probably keep it up longer. On and on she ran, jumping over small holes, darting around trees and rocks, stumbling over unseen obstacles, and covering mile after mile of flat unchanging ground. Still running, chanced a glance over her shoulder and saw that the Thrall horde had not given up on the chase, in fact it had nearly tripled in size. Ana redoubled her efforts to keep up the dead sprint but she could feel her legs beginning to fail. A strange break in the purple grass dead ahead of her drew Ana's attention and as she neared it, she realized it was a platform of some kind being held in place by 4 chains across from each other. Ana dropped into a slide which brought her to a stop in the middle of the platform, right by the lever that released the chain locks. Without thought or hesitation Ana hit the lever, releasing the locks and causing the platform to begin it's descent.

"That was a bad move." Ana's Ghost whispered, "We are currently descending towards the area where the Hive are thickest." The elevator came to screeching halt and Ana heard a grinding and then a couple thuds, and without anyone telling her what happened, she knew that the elevator wasn't going anywhere, any time soon. Ana looked around and felt her heart sink as she stared into the blackness surrounding her. "They haven't woken yet, but the second you move out of the light, they will awake and chase you. So you better not make a wrong turn."

"I'm sorry." Ana jumped when she heard a new voice from her comms. "I can't help you anymore. You're on your own. I tried to lead you to my ship, but then you did this. If you are stupid enough to do what you did, you clearly weren't worthy of being alive." "If you do happen to make it out alive, come find me, I'll be on Jupiter. Ask for The Stranger." And just like that, the transmission was cut and Ana was once again alone. Ana felt rage building up and without thinking threw her head back and screamed in rage. Ana heard movement around her and froze, realizing that she'd just screwed up. Then the glowing green eyes began opening in the darkness, and Ana bolted, causing all the lights to flicker on, and the Hive gave chase. The Hive were vicious, Ana ran and ran deeper into hell eventually losing the site of light. After barely escaping the hive, she finally realized how deep in shit she was. She did not know which way she had run to get where she was, she didn't know which way to go or what to do. So she did the only thing she could think of, she tried to survive as long as she could. At first, Ana saw nothing, but after a few days, Ana was hungry and thirsty and went in search of food and water.

Ana and her ghost saw unspeakable things during the search, how the hive made worms, thralls, knights, acolytes, and such. she clung to the shadows much like Eris had done when Eris was trapped in the hellmouth for years. Another day passed without the discovery of anything and Ana was weak and sick, she was near giving up when a lone Acolyte wandered near her position. In sudden desperation, Ana lunged from her hiding spot and broke the Acolyte's neck with an audible snap, that went unheard. Quietly, Ana dragged the Acolytes corpse back into the little cave that none of the Hive seemed to notice. Ana unsheathed her knife and laid it to the side. Using only her brute strength, Ana cracked and broke the armor off the Acolyte's chest and then tore the rest of the armor off it's arms and head. Using her knife, Ana sliced into the Acolyte's chest and tore it open, revealing it's inner organs, and splashing it's blood all over Ana's gloved hands and spraying it onto her helmet and chestplate. Ana reached further in and tore out the acolytes heart and using her Solar abilities(surprising herself with them) she heated the heart and burned it a little, making feel like broiled chicken in her hand. Without thinking, Ana reached up and removed her helmet, and instantly regretted it as she had to gasp for air for a couple seconds before her body adjusted to the slightly less oxygen content of the air. Before she could stop it, the hunger inside her took over and she devoured the Acolyte's heart in just a few bites, tasting none of it. Still without control, she used her Solar powers to cook the rest of the corpse and began tearing it apart and eating any real meat she could strip from the corpse. After her hunger was satiated, she leaned back, stared down at her Hive Blood splattered hands and helmet and looked down at the corpse. All of sudden, the reality of what she'd just down hit her, and if she'd been standing, she would have collapsed. At the moment, her ghost floated in and froze, staring at her and the corpse of the Acolyte.

"Did you…" The Ghost trailed off, Ana nodded and the Ghost made a sighing noise. Without a word, the ghost materialized the jug of water the ghost had carried back. Ana snatched up the jug and drank half of the water before capping it and setting it aside. Ana looked down at the Acolyte's corpse and made a decision, if she was going to live, she'd have to continue killing and eating the disgusting creatures. Ana laid down on the cold ground several feet away from the corpse and drifted off to sleep. Ana woke the next morning, feeling a little odd, and opened her eyes to complete darkness.

"Ghost? You there?" Ana whispered.

"Yes. I'm shining a light into your eyes. Can't you see it?" Ana shook her head, fear rising within her. "Your eyes were blue, why are they orange now?" Ana shrugged and began rapidly blinking her eyes as they started to burn(not literally) and water. Ana shut her eyes and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes and tried to suppress the pain. Slowly, the pain faded away and Ana removed her hands from her eyes and opened them.

"Is your light still on?" Ana asked. In response, the Ghost turned the light back on, reblinding Ana and causing her to cover her eyes with her arm. Slowly, Ana lowered her arm and allowed her eyes to adjust to the light. Ana's ghost turned off the light again, plunging them back into darkness. To Ana's great surprise, her eyes adjusted till she was able to see again and her Ghost made a little gasping sound.

"Your eyes…" Her Ghost began, "They're glowing." Ana shrugged and her Ghost settled inside Ana's discarded helmet. Silently, Ana rose and moved out of the cave to go hunting once again.

Ana lived in the cave for several weeks, but due to her odd sleep schedule and her lack of a day night cycle to view, she assumed it had only been a few days. Several more uneventful weeks passed, all the days blending together, screwing up her sense of time. To her, it had only been 2 weeks, but in reality, she had been living in the Hive Cesspool for 2 months.

Then, only 3 days before she was planning to attempt to escape, Ana heard a sweet soothing voice, singing a familiar song. She'd heard the song down here before, but she'd never been this close to it before. Ana considered informing her Ghost that they were going towards it but, whatever, she had her Ghost with her; It wouldn't complain. So, Ana took a second to pinpoint the sound and began moving towards it. After only a few seconds, Ana was attacked by a Thrall that was hiding in an alcove. Before she could kill it, the Thrall slashed her side with it's claws, tearing through the weak armor and shredding the skin underneath. Ana snapped the Thrall's neck and gripped her side in pain as she continued searching for the source of the singing.

Eventually, Ana found the source. In the middle of a massive hidden chamber Ana had discovered long ago, on a rock, with a small tablet like device in hand, sat a woman dressed in Hive armor with the eyes of a Hive, yet Ana knew she was not Hive. The woman looked up, and the eyes, hidden behind the gauze, seemed to settle on her and the woman stopped singing.

"You are not Hive, what are you and how are you here?" The woman growled as she stood and drew her weapon. Ana stumbled out of her hiding spot, getting dizzy from blood loss and stared at the woman for a few seconds before she spoke.

"I could ask the same of you." Ana hissed. Ana looked down at her side and saw that her hand was covered in her own blood and it was slowly spreading, soaking into the cloth lining of the armor and running down her leg. "Oh." Ana mumbled before collapsing, unconscious before she hit the ground.

Hours later, Ana awoke in a hospital, with several human doctors around her, and the woman in the cave standing off to the side, with no memory of what had happened the weeks before.

"Where am I? Who are you? How'd I get here?" Ana mumbled, gasping in pain.

"Hey, settle down. I've been ordered to guard you and you are not to move." A human in armor by the door said with a slight german accent.

"I don't need guarding, I'll kick your ass if I have to." Ana growled.

"I don't see that happening anytime soon." The human chuckled, "My name's Edward. I'm primarily a Nightstalker, like you. What's your name?"

"I'm Ana, now get outta my face." Ana growled.

"Well Ana, you and I are Guardians. We Guard humanity. Eris is the one that found and rescued you so you owe her your life. We are Hunter Class so we'll be training together. If you ever need anything, give me a call." Edward said before walking out of the room. Ana closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep once more.

Now….

Ana awoke to the rising suns and looked around, knowing why this place had felt so similar to her know. Ana climbed out of Edward's sleeping bag and watched the rising suns come up over the horizon. She had come from this direction when she had run. They were heading back towards the ruined city, and her lost gun. Ana took a deep breath in attempt to calm herself and shivered, still cold from the frigid night air. Ana walked over and kicked Edward, waking him abruptly. Edward woke, and within seconds was on his feet with twin knives in hand, ready to kill and fully alert. Ana started laughing at the panicked look in Edward's eyes and he gave her a death look, only making her laugh harder.

"Who are you and what have you done with Ana?" Edward growled jokingly.

"I killed her and made a new one." Ana answered, laughing even harder at the look Edward gave her.

"What is wrong with you?" Ryan asked, giving her an odd look that made her laugh more, "I thought you couldn't laugh."

"I saw your face and that changed." Ana choked out before laughing even harder at her own joke. Edward, Jace, Baris-7 and Shannon started laughing as well as Ryan's face turned red.

"It's not funny." Ryan snarled.

"You're right, it's not funny," Shannon said, barely containing her laughter, "It's hilarious." Shannon began laughing again, and the others started laughing harder. Ryan sighed and shook his head and walked away from the others. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something dash towards Ryan, and out of pure instinct, she whirled and fired her ShadowShot into the Thrall's chest, killing it instantly. The entire rest of the group, including Ryan, stared at Ana, no longer laughing.

"I have NEVER seen you move that quickly before. How did you do that?" Edward asked, confused and surprised.

"Uh, remember that trauma I suffered that blocked my memories, I seem to have removed the block." Ana said sheepishly.

"What was your trauma then?" Ryan snapped, getting death looks from Edward and Jace.

"You know that pit we just escaped from? I was trapped down there for a few months. Not a few weeks. This is my home planet." Ana said, staring everywhere BUT at the other Guardians.

"And your point is?" Ryan snapped. Shannon smacked Ryan in the back of his head and gave him a death look. "Ow." Ryan grumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

"What has gotten into you today? I make fun of you all the time, but she does it and you turn into a douchebag. What is your problem?" Shannon growled at Ryan.

"She BETRAYED us. She left with that, TRAITOR, why should we be nice to her?" Ryan growled back, raising his voice.

"Uhm guys, please stop yelling." Ana urged. Both Ryan and Shannon ignored her.

"Because if you don't shut the fuck and stop being a dick I'll lay you out the way she did first day." Shannon yelled, making Ryan turn a beet red color with rage.

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP OR I'LL PERSONALLY BREAK YOUR LEGS AND LEAVE YOU FOR THE HIVE!" Edward roared at them, very, VERY pissed off. Ryan and Shannon stopped yelling at each other and looked at Edward, who had void energy swirling around him making him look terrifyingly ominous, even in the light of three suns. Ana took a step back, fearful of Edward for the first time ever. Ana had never seen Edward lose his cool before, but she'd seen the aftermath of the last time it'd happened. Edward had been trapped on a Cabal base, and they had somehow pissed him off. In the end, the base somehow got blown to smithereens and a few pieces had been actually launched into Mars orbit. When Ana showed up to see what had blown up the base, sitting in the middle of a 235ft deep crater was Edward, sitting on a rock and sharpening his knives.

Ana shook off the memory and placed her hand on Edward's shaking shoulder and his head snapped over to look at her, and he instantly calmed down.

"We need to get moving, and Edward, we don't need a repeat of Alpha Base 2731 here." Ana said with an air of authority. For some reason, everyone got to work tearing down camp and packing back up. Once they were packed up, Ana switched to the hand signals they were taught and signaled them to get in Arrowhead formation with Ana on point, Ryan and Jac on her left and Shannon and Baris-7 to her right with Edward watching their back. Still signaling, Ana instructed them to set pace at a sort of sprinting jog. It took nearly no energy for them to do, but they covered ground faster than they had before. Within a few hours, and only a few minor skirmishes with the Hive, The group reached the abandoned town. Ana signaled for the group to stop and motioned for them to find cover. Ana activated her experimental stealth cloak and began slowly moving forward, unsure of what to expect. Slowly but deliberately, Ana picked up a small rock and threw it at a metal wall, where it made a loud pinging noise that seemed to echo through the air. Ana stood still for several minutes, waiting for any Hive to show themselves. When none did, Ana unstealthed and motioned for the group to move up. Slowly, they began moving through the town till a golden glint in the dirt caught Ana's eye. Ana held up her hand, signaling the team to stop, and Ana approached the golden glint. Using her foot, Ana reached out and dragged the filthy, leaf and dirt covered object over to her and slowly picked it up. Using her expertly honed void abilities, she cleaned the filth from her fallen weapon and looked up. Floating only a few yards away, with their backs to her, was a group of 4 Hive wizards. Ana stumbled back and signaled frantically for the group to hide. The wizards began to turn, and with no place to get to fast enough, Ana tried to activate her stealth. The wizards turned around and narrowed their eyes, expecting to see something, but saw nothing. Ana went to move away and she heard a slight sputter from her stealth, and then it shut off. The wizards pointed at Ana and began to screech in rage, and then they opened portals that hive began pouring out of. Ana turned and shouted at the top of her lungs, "RETREAT BACK 30 METERS AND FORM SHIELD WALL TO THE SOUTH." Then she began running around west. Since the Hive couldn't see the rest of them, they all pursued Ana as she ran.

Edward took over the second Ana disappeared and ran everyone into the alley Ana had been referencing, and set everyone up in formation. Edward on point since he was the best shot, Jace to his left, Baris-7 to his right, with Ryan behind Jace and Shannon behind Baris-7. The Edward, Jace, and Baris-7 activated the shields Ana had built for them while they were on their way back from Zeph's place and positioned them in a slanted interlocking pattern, making them near impenetrable. The 5 of them sat and waited, first a minute went by, and another, and another, and another. After several more tense minutes of waiting, they heard Ana whistle from somewhere in front of them and they tensed up, waiting for her to appear. A few seconds later, Ana shot around a corner and ran for the Shield wall, Hive hot on her heels. Right before she would have crashed into the shields blocking the small alley, Ana sprung up over them and landed behind Edward, spinning and changing momentum to come right up behind Edward so that she could fire over his shoulder. Then, Ryan, Shannon, and Ana opened fire on the Hive, dropping them faster than they could pour into the alley. A noise from behind caused Ana to turn her head and she saw more Hive coming from the back.

"Ryan, Shannon, more Hive on your Six. Shield team, go offensive." Ana ordered. Immediately, Ryan and Shannon spun around and began firing on the Hive that were trying to come from the other way. Edward, Jace, and Baris-7 recalled the shields and began firing their own guns into the Hive hoard.

"We are outnumbered here Captain," Edward yelled to Ana, reverting back to his old nickname for her, "They have more thrall then we have bullets to drop them with. Also, we are stuck in the middle of an alley with no way out."

"Wrong, we definitely have a way out." Ana said before stomping on a slightly raised panel in the concrete, opening the floor underneath them and dropping them down into a tunnel, and the hole they fell through sealed back up.

"Where are we?" Edward groaned.

"Welcome to my Lab." Ana said as she flipped a switch on the wall, turning on all the lights and revealing a massive chamber filled with weapon parts and machinery.

"Ho...ly...Shit." Ryan whispered while the others stared.

"Behind this door is our only chance at escape." Ana said as she approached a locked vault door. Ana input a passcode to the lock and hit the switch, causing the door to swing open and reveal its contents.

Shannon gasped and sputtered "But...But...That's not possible."

 **That's all for part 2. Much thanks to Kenokosan for giving me a bit of story to work with. I won't put the link on here(because I can't do that on the school computer I'm typing this on XD) but Kenokosan has written some beautiful smut between Edward and Ana. Also, Kenokosan is Ana's creator, but I'm not done changing and developing her backstory yet. Currently, Ana is technically 31, and Edward is technically 46, although neither look older than 25. If you have any criticism or helpful hints, send them to me. I'm not sure if you caught it, but in the last part I made reference to A Dark night with the character Gate. Finally(I ramble a lot) last chapter should have been titled Hellmouth 2.0 not Hellmouth 20. That was an unforeseen mistake.**


	8. Chapter 5 part 3: Time Warp

**Chapter 5(again)**

"You...You have a ship? Here?" Edward asked, impressed.

"Yeah. It's not done yet though. It was only a third of the way finished when I died." Ana said, shutting the vault door and locking it. "I don't know why it's so impossible to you guys. In my past life I was a scavenger. The guardians were a thing already but we didn't know much about them, being as far away as we were. We viewed them as a threat so whenever one of their ships came to our planet, we shot them down and would use their ship for parts." Ana said as she walked over to one of the large crates and began rummaging through it. "I have about 20 years worth of food and water down here and enough weapons and ammo to weaponize an entire planet."

"Why?" Ryan asked as he went to pick something up.

"Don't touch that!" Ana snapped, causing Ryan to jerk his hand back. "The reason I have all this done here is because this was our base that we used to plot against the Hive. If you try to touch another thing I'm going to cut your fingers off." Ryan pulled his hand away from another piece of tech that he'd been about to touch and moved away from the shelves.

"Why are you being so protective of the shelves? It's just tech." Ryan grumbled.

"Because 99% of the stuff on these shelves will kill you if you touch it. Especially the power cores you were going to touch." Ana growled. Ana moved over to the wall and pulled on a thick pair of gloves and grabbed a wheeled tub. Ana began walking among the shelves, grabbing seemingly random pieces of tech and placing them in the tub. "Take off your armor and set it over there," Ana instructed, waving her hand in the direction of a large circular table, "Please keep your armor separate from the others and sit with your armor. I'm going to make some much needed modifications to your armor and weapons."

The other 5 guardians did as she said, and the process of modification began. Several weeks went by in the blink of an eye, all of them ate and slept in the same room, but thankfully there were several different bathrooms around. It took them a month to fully modify the first set of armor, which belonged to Ryan. Ana instructed him that he was not to touch it till they were all finished. Next they moved on to Shannon's armor. The modifications to Shannon's armor only took a few days because Shannon didn't really need anything big. Jace and Baris-7 already wore heavily modded armor so nothing needed to be done to theirs but Edward's armor was still untouched. Edward and Ana set about modding his armor the same way Ryan's had been modded, enhanced sensors, stronger metals and fabric, more channeling ability, a gauntlet like hers, better shields, better fitting, and a better visor. As with the others, he made a few personal modifications as well. With the both of them working on it, it only took 2 weeks to modify. Ana checked her calendar and realised that they'd been down in her base with no contact to the outside world for close to 2 months. Ana went into one of the bathrooms and removed her chestplate and helmet and stared in the mirror. In the past 2 months, Ana had managed to put on a significant amount of weight and was getting worried that she was eating too much.

"Something bothering you?" Ana's ghost asked as it materialized in front of her.

"I'm gaining weight and I don't know why. I know I'm not eating too much, I haven't eaten much lately. I'm always hungry though, and I always have to go to the bathroom. It's annoying." Ana groaned. Ana's ghost floated down and began scanning her stomach for irregularities. After a few seconds it floated back up to Ana's eye level and made a sighing sound.

"I have good news and bad news for you, but I'm not sure which is which. So, I'll give them to you in the way they'd fall in our current position." Ana's ghost sighed. "Good news, you aren't getting overweight. Bad news, you are four months pregnant."

"WHAT?!" Ana gasped, nearly falling over.

"I've run DNA tests already, it's Edward's." Her ghost continued.

"Shit, shit, shit. I can't let them know that." Ana hissed. "Can you adjust my armor to hide it?"

"Yes." Her ghost answered. Quickly, Ana's ghost widened the armor with it's strange abilities. Ana thanked her ghost and re donned her armor and went back into the common room to discuss their next steps. In the common room, standing around the table was Ryan and Shannon on one side, and Jace and Baris-7 on the other, arguing about something with Edward standing a few feet away, shaking his head.

"I don't care what you think, I say that you should do it." Ryan snarled.

"And I say that you should do it cause you're the one that wants it done." Jace growled back.

"You two are better suited to carry it out." Ryan yelled.

"Are you saying that we're only good for manual labor?" Baris-7 snapped.

"NO! I'm saying that you're better at it than us." Ryan yelled back, getting more frustrated.

"AND I SAY THAT ALL OF YOU BETTER SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ana shouted angrily. Immediately, the 4 of them shut up and stared at Ana. Ana walked up to the table and leaned forward, supporting herself with her arms. "Edward, what the fuck are they arguing about?"

"We were arguing about…" Ryan began.

"WAS I TALKING TO YOU?!" Ana roared at Ryan. Ryan shrank back a little and Ana turned back to Edward. "Now, what were they arguing about."

"They were talking about recon. Ryan was saying that we hadn't been outside in awhile so we should send a team of two up to the surface to recon. Ryan said that Jace and Baris-7 should do it, and they said that Ryan and Shannon should do it. I think that me and Ryan would be better suited since we are Hunters." Edward explained. Ana raised an eyebrow and Edward added quickly, "I'm not saying you couldn't do it, just saying that we need you here to regulate things."

"Lucky for you all, we don't need to do recon. The ship is complete." Ana growled.

"HOW?!" Everyone but Edward shouted at Ana.

"There are robots that have been building the ship for us. They finished installing the final pieces a few hours ago. I want all of you ready to go in 10 minutes." Ana ordered.

"How are we all gonna fit in the ship in the vault? It is barely big enough for a single person." Shannon asked.

"The ship in the vault? That is only a scale model. The ship is MUCH bigger than that. Why aren't you moving, get ready to go. I want every piece of tech in here ready for transport in 10 minutes. Get to work." The six of them scattered and began loading up the storage crates with the tech and finished with 3 minutes to spare. Ana checked and double checked that they'd gotten everything and then walked over to one of the walls and pushed in several of the wall panels, and the wall began to shake. After a few seconds, the wall opened up to reveal a large elevator that was big enough to hold all the crates and the guardians. Ana motioned them forward and the six of them began loading the 9, 6ft crates onto the elevator, 2 people to a crate. Once everything was on the elevator, Ana hit a switch and the elevator began to slowly descend. No spoke a word as the elevator descended into the dark depths. Several minutes passed before they entered the hanger. Ana heard the other 5 of them gasp as the hanger lights came on and they saw the massiveness that it was. They were still several hundred feet from the ground and they could see the entire hanger.

"We're looking at one of ten rooms in the hanger" Ana informed them. "Each room is about 4 square miles. This is the entry room, which is smaller than the rest by about a mile or so. The ship we're using is in the room on our right." After several more minutes, the elevator stopped on the ground and Ana stepped out and hit a button next to the elevator. Out of nowhere, 20 odd robotic creatures showed up and started grabbing the crates and carrying them, 2 to a crate. Ana hit another button and six more creatures showed up, these with saddles. "Pick a robot and hop on. If we go on foot, it'll take us around 2 hours to get there." Ana said. The six of them jumped onto the robot creatures and they took off at a scary speed and managed to reach their destination in only 5 minutes. The six of them dismounted and Ana opened the door and allowed the robots carrying the crates to go through first and then they followed. Ana marveled at how big the place was, it was hard to believe that the hive had carved this out in only a few weeks.

"Who built this place?" Baris-7 asked.

"Technically, the Hive carved all of this out. We just killed all the hive down here and transformed it into a ship hangar." Ana responded. The ship sat in the middle of the room, and seemed to take up half the room, but in reality, it only took up about a third of the 4 sq mile room.

"That thing is fucking huge." Ryan said incredulously. "How long did it take to build?"

"Well, it was started around 600 years ago and the worker bots have been working on it since then, and they just finished loading the thing up for travel a few days ago, so roughly 600 years or so." Ana said, drawing a slight gasp from them. "The ship is about a mile long by half a mile wide. If the engines exploded, this planet would probably never be able to support life again." calm as could be, Ana walked up the giant ramp and entered the cargo bay of the ship where a bunch of robots were organizing and tying down loose cargo. Ana waved for the others to follow and they did. The six of them entered a side door and walked for several minutes through seemingly endless hallways till they came upon a room about the size of a normal classroom. Along the walls were panels with buttons, levers, switches and all manner of other things. In front of each of the three panels of stuff was a monitor.

"Alright, we're a little understaffed right now, but we can fly this ship with only 3 people. So we'll have 4 people in here, and 2 in the engine room." Ana said, walking up to the panel against the center wall. "This is the cockpit of the ship. The walls in this room are monitors used for observation of space as we fly and the small monitors are to monitor ship systems. Shannon, Baris-7, you two will be in the engine room since I know you are good with things like that. Ryan, Jace, you two will be in charge of weapons, each of those side panels controls the weapons on either side of the ship. Edward will be my co-pilot since he's the best flyer out of you." Ana took a breath before continuing, "I have sent a message to all of you containing a map of the entire ship. Use it." Shannon and Baris-7 opened the map on the visors of their helmets and set off for the engine room. Gleefully, Ryan and Jace dashed to their panels and somehow found the button that pulled up the chairs which they quickly sat down in before examining their panels. Ana and Edward pulled up the chairs for the main control panel, which controlled flight and monitored everything. Ana went to show Edward what things did, and found that he had found a manual, which had probably been stashed under the console. After a few seconds, Ana and Edward had the ship activated, but the engines had not started yet. Ana switched on her radio comms that came with all Guardians helms, and tuned it to the right frequency.

"How's the engine doing?" Ana asked Shannon and Baris-7.

"It's in tip top shape." Shannon responded.

"Needs a little tuning though, I'm almost done with it though. Aaaaand done." Baris-7 said proudly, "Engines and hyperdrive are ready to go. Just wondering how we're getting this thing outta here." Ana just smiled and hit a switch that was only on her side of the panel. The six of them heard a large blaring alarm and then the walls and ceiling in the cockpit lit up and revealed what was going on. The massive cave roof above them was slowly opening up to reveal the outside world. Ana laughed at the stunned look on Edward's face and hit the switch to activate the engines. Ana felt the rumbles as the engines started up and the ship began to rise out of the cavern. The ship continued to rise, and after several seconds, they had reached several hundred feet above sea level.

"Engaging forward thrusters, hold on to something." Ana chuckled over comms as she hit the button to activate the main thrusters, which launched them at .05% the speed of light, out of the atmosphere. Ana heard a beep come from her monitor and checked what it was. "Prepare for battle, we are being pursued by 20 Hive battleships. They are larger than the normal ones we see, and don't carry very many Hive. The ship is mainly Engine and Guns. So, we have to outgun them since we can't outrun them." Ana watched on her monitor as the weapons came to life and oriented in the direction of the Hive. The second the Hive were in range, Ryan and Jace locked on to the Hive ships, which quickly cut speed and ducked right back out of range. Ana continued hitting switches and buttons, until the Hyperdrive activated, and they shot off through space.

"Uh, Ana, the Engines aren't appreciating whatever it is you're doing up there." Shannon said worriedly. Shannon continued doing her scan of the engines while she listened in to comms, waiting for a response from Ana, but all she got was static.

"Having issues with Comms?" Baris-7 asked from his position across the room. "It may have something to do with the Hyperdrive. It is giving off strange energy spikes that it should not be. If my analysis is correct, then the Hyperdrive is not stable, meaning we are about to have a VERY bad day." Just as Baris-7 finished speaking, they heard a loud boom and the whole ship shook, and then the engines and Hyperdrive shut off.

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!" Ana screamed through comms.

"Well, good news is that Comms work again." Baris-7 said to Shannon before switching on his comm mic. "Well, the engines and Hyperdrive are unresponsive, our monitoring equipment says that everything is active, but it clearly isn't. We think that the Hyperdrive wasn't as stable as we thought it was. So, where are we?"

"Truthfully, I don't know. What I do know, is that there is a large Fallen ketch coming straight for us, with weapons engaged. And we look very suspicious, a giant ship made from hive, fallen, and Guardian pieces. So, no one do anything stupid." Ana sighed.

"Ana, the engines are turning themselves back on. I can't stop it, the Hyperdrive seems to be coming online as well." Baris-7 held through the comms over the sound of the engines revving up.

Ana scrambled back into her seat after trying to to engage a system restart with no effect. Through the ship communication ships, Ana heard a faint hiss of static and a message from the Ketch came through right as the engines and Hyperdrive activated and they began their journey once again. Ana reached over and hit the button to play the sent message.

"This is Guardian Ana. We request that you disengage weapons and allow us to board. If you resist, we will have to take your ship by force. Stand down."

Ana and Edward stared at each other for a few seconds before looking at Ryan and Jace. Ryan looked confused and Jace had gone stark white.

"Was that…" Jace began.

"Yes it was." Ana said, at a strange look from Ryan, Ana explained. "When we on our way back from our meeting with Zeph, we had stolen a Fallen ketch and were running low on fuel. Moments after we had slowed, a massive ship appeared out of nowhere. This ship. I sent a message to the ship, and then it shot away and disappeared. Didn't even leave a trail. That message we just listened to, is the one I sent to the ship."

"Meaning what?" Ryan asked, scared.

"Meaning, we just broke all the laws of time and space by traveling back in time." Edward answered, mystified. Shannon and Baris-7 walked into the cockpit and gave Ana a look. The six of them turned to the front wall monitor as they finally reached their Destination, Earth. Immediately, someone began hailing them on comms and Ana hit the button to connect.

"This is Commander Zavala of the Vanguard. State your business or be gone." Zavala snarled.

"Well damn Zavala, thanks for the warm welcome." Ana snapped back into the microphone.

"Who is this? Why are you descending into Guardian airspace with your, thing." Zavala growled as all the sensors on the ship went off, indicating that the Tower defenses were locked onto the ship.

"Damn you Zavala, you know exactly who we are. You are just trying to find a reason to blow us out of the sky aren't you? Well, sadly for you, we have 20,000 times the firepower and shields that Tower defenses won't even dent. We are going to land a few miles from the city, and we expect you to send a team to retrieve us. Ana out." Ana snarled.

"Fine." Zavala growled back, and then Ana disconnected comms. Ana steered the ship and landed it 2 miles from the City and activated the defense bots. Any Hive or Fallen that seeked to take the ship would be instantly eliminated, that is, if they could make it through the ever active shields. As they walked off the ship through the cargo bay, which closed behind them, a transport ship landed and the side doors opened. A Guardian on the inside waved them over and the six of them got in the transport ship and they went back to the Tower. Once safely landed, the six of them got out of the Transport ship and headed down to the Vanguard room, where Zavala and Cayde were waiting for them. Ana picked up her pace until she reached Cayde, and then she punched Cayde as hard as she could in face. Ana grimaced in pain and held her hand while giving Cayde a vicious look. Cayde just laughed at her and shrugged.

"Guess I deserved that one. I knew you'd do that. We did send you back to the place of your nightmares, but it was Eris' idea, not mine." Cayde chuckled. "Good job guys, the fact that you're all here and alive means that you'll make a perfect team, dismissed."

"I have something I want to say, Edward, you stay here to. The rest of you can leave." Ana mumbled. Edward walked up to Ana and gave her an odd look.

"What is it?" Edward asked in his typical emotionless tone.

"I… good god this is hard to say." Ana began nervously, "Edward…. I'm…."

"Yes?" Edward asked teasingly.

"I'm…. pregnant with your child." Ana blurted out. Edward rocked back on his heels a little and Cayde whistled. Ana felt her face turning beet red behind her helmet, so she was glad they couldn't see it.

"You do know that you are going to be pulled from your fireteam now right? Both of you. No more missions, no leaving the Tower, until you have your child." Cayde said. Both Ana and Edward nodded and Cayde sighed. Cayde began walking towards Ikora's office and motioned for Ana and Edward to follow.

3 days later….

"Alright. Change of plans." Cayde said to Ryan and Shannon who were standing before him. "You two are being sent out to the Dreadnaught in 1 week to find Oryx. You need to get rested and ready for your trip. Dismissed."

Ryan and Shannon looked at each other and sighed. It'd only been 3 days since they were told about the fireteam being disbanded. Jace and Baris-7 had been deployed to the cosmodrome to do recon and they were going to the Dreadnaught. Yay. Ryan held out his hand and Shannon laced his fingers with hers and they went off to the dorm they shared to spend some quality time with each other.

 **Alright. Chapter 6 is the start of everything. All the pieces are in place, one slight nudge, and everything will tumble. You won't see much of Ana and Edward in the next few chapters, they have other things to worry about right now. Ryan and Shannon will be the main focus of the next few chapters, and I'll develop them more from there. Zeph and Nissa will be making more appearances as well, and neither of them will be helpful. If you want updates on my progress in the chapters, follow me on twitter HiveKingCrota.**


	9. Chapter 6: The Half-truth

**Chapter 6**

Zepheron woke up in the room Oryx had given him and looked over at his clock. In the pitch blackness, the clock was the only source of light and it read, 9:30am. Zeph got up and carefully made his way through the darkness to the lightswitch, which he flipped on. The lights came on instantly with blinding radiance, causing Zeph to flinch and cover his eyes. Zeph moved his hand away from his eyes and squinted against the light until his eyes adjusted. Zeph looked around at the dark brown bare walls and the untouched space in the room. The only things in the room were a nightstand with a black clock and a large king size bed which sat in the corner of the room. Zeph sighed in exasperation. Zeph picked his helmet up of the nightstand and placed it on his head. His armor sealed the helmet on with a hiss and a click. Zeph wiped the dirt off his armor and opened the small door that sat in the middle of one of the empty walls. Zeph slept in his armor every night now. After the first night, when he was attacked by a Thrall, he had decided that even though it is slightly uncomfortable, it was better than being dead.

"Guardian, report to Oryx's private study. He wishes to speak with you." A Hive Wizard informed him in her surprisingly nice and sing song sweet voice, as she floated past with a small cluster of Acolytes following her. Zeph smiled and waved at the Wizard and she smiled and waved back. Zeph walked out of his doorway and shut the door behind him and made his way towards Oryx's study. Zeph had been living in Oryx's palace for several months now and he found that the Hive he'd fought all those years before he was taken, were not the monsters he had thought they were. Well, besides the Thrall. They were monsters through and through. The Wizard that had passed him, her name was Zara. She was one of Oryx's daughters and the most lusted for by the Knights and Acolytes. Zara had no interest for them though, she had made it very clear through her actions that she was considerably interested in Zeph. Zeph wouldn't lie, something about Zara interested him too, but that wasn't important right then, Oryx wanted him.

Zeph walked into Oryx's study and found him standing in front of a large board, which was clearly the map of Earth's solar system. Oryx had marked out the areas on the map that each group controlled. The map was perfectly color coordinated. White for the Guardians, Green for the Hive and Taken, Blue for the Cabal, red for the Vex, and purple for the Fallen. Most of the map was covered in white, which seemed to be pissing Oryx off. Zeph shut the door and sat down in his normal chair.

"Do you know why we are trying to destroy the traveller and it's light?" Oryx snarled at Zeph without turning around.

"Because you feel like it? Maybe you want control of the universe? I don't know." Zeph yawned back.

"If only that were all. The Hive had hated the Traveller and it's light for hundreds of thousands of years. But, it wasn't always that way. We used to be friends with the Traveller. In fact, before we were enemies, There were Hive that were Guardians. Back in that time, we were not referred to as Hive. We were the Zanders. We were more like you than you think. For several hundred years, We protected the Traveller from its enemies, but one day, we managed to destroy the travellers enemies. That night, the apparently dying Traveller, disappeared, and our Guardians with it. We were worried, but we heard nothing. For a hundred years, we heard nothing. Then, one day, the Traveller returned. But it didn't return in the way we thought it would. Instead of coming back and bringing us out of the dark ages we'd fallen back into, it returned with an army and tried to wipe us out. Naturally, we ran. We hid in our caves and mines. We lived in the dark, hiding from the new Guardians. We lived in the darkness for hundreds of years, and we adapted. We changed, we had been a trading planet, but when we came back out of hiding, we had been changed by the darkness. We had welcomed it, embraced it, and now, we controlled it. We came out in force, and wiped out the Guardians on the surface, and the Traveller fled. We chased it across the universe for hundreds of thousands of years with the goal of destroying as many of it's Guardians as it killed of our people. After a while, most of the Hive, for that was what we were now, had forgotten the original goal, and just seeked to destroy everything they could. I am the only descendant of the original Zanders who remembers the original mission. But, I no longer care for the original. If we do not exterminate all of the other species, they will rise up against us and oppose us. By the time we are done, the Light that destroyed my son shall be extinguished." Oryx took a huge breath before continuing, "The Light, shall never burn again."

Zeph sat in his chair, riveted to the spot by Oryx's ferocity, when Oryx turned to Zeph, with a look of rage in his eyes.

"Then there's you." Oryx snarled, "Telling me to my face that you are loyal, then plotting my downfall behind my back"

"How did you learn that?" Zeph asked surprised. Behind him, Zeph heard the doors to Oryx's study opened and Zeph turned to see Nissa prance into the room and sit down in the chair across from him.

"You need to be more careful who you trust, Zeph." Nissa purred as she adjusted herself in the chair. Zeph rolled his eyes, no longer surprised by Oryx's knowledge and sighed. Oryx chuckled and shut the doors.

"I must ask you Guardian, and answer truthfully, will you help me fight the Traveller, or will you help the light you have been severed from?" Oryx inquired, leaning back up against the wall. Zeph thought for several minutes until he made his decision.

"I shall aid you in your destruction of the Traveller." Zeph said, with his mind firmly made up, "Under one condition. No harm shall come to My mother."

"Who is your mother?" Oryx asked, confused.

"My mother is Queen of the Reef, Mara Sov." Zeph admitted.

"How is that possible, Guardians are revived from the dead." Nissa spluttered

"True, I was revived 3 weeks after my death. I was killed by Fallen while exploring Earth." Zeph said.

"Since I know this to be true, no harm shall fall upon Mara or her people, if they stay out of this. If they interfere, only Mara shall be spared." Oryx said. Zeph nodded in agreement and Oryx turned back to the map. Oryx tapped on Mars, and the map zoomed in to view only mars. Most of the map of Mars was Cabal controlled and Oryx growled. "Mars is our first target. The Cabal have taken control of much of mars, and the only parts free of Cabal control are controlled by Vex. The Vex are losing land though, thanks to our friend here," Oryx waved his hand at Zeph, who turned to see who Oryx was talking to and saw that the back wall had disappeared connecting Oryx's study to the war room where all of Oryx's generals stood and watched, "Who destroyed the heart of the Vex. Do not underestimate them though, the Vex are still formidable, and must be dealt with."

"What is the point in taking mars? We already have the moon. Why not invade them from their?" One of the generals snarled.

"If we attack Earth before we take Mars, what will keep the Cabal from coming to the Guardians aid? We know that they have managed to ally themselves with several Fallen Houses already. Two Guardians, known as Ana and Edward, have forged a secret alliance with the House of Devils, so once Mars is ours, we must then skip Earth, and take Venus. While we have the Guardians distracted, defending Mars and Venus, my Guardians shall Infiltrate the Tower and undermine it from the inside. The three Guardians in the Tower they will be gunning for are the three most hated of the Vanguard, Zavala the Titan, Ikora the Warlock, and Cayde the Hunter. They will be leaving in 1 hour. Are there any questions?"

"Can I go with him?" Zara asked from her position at the back of the group.

"How would you blend in?" Oryx snarled.

"I have learned to take on a Human form, and Zeph made me a pair of gloves that allow me to use a Guardian's powers. He said he got the idea from another Guardian." Zara muttered. Oryx turned to Zeph, who nodded in agreement, and sighed.

"I guess you can go. But if you are discovered, you will compromise the entire mission, and we will send in an army to extract you." Oryx growled. Zara nodded in understanding and shot out of the war room to ready herself.

An hour later, the three of them met up in the hangar by Zepheron's ship. Zeph was struck speechless when he say Zara approaching. Instead of being human, Zara had taken the form of an Awoken. Zara was about 5ft 6in, had a darker blue shade of skin which matched his perfectly, had brilliant blue eyes to match her skin, and wore dark purple armor with a skin tight battle suit that hugged her perfect hourglass figure. The one part of her Zeph couldn't keep his eyes off though, was her chest. Even in the thick armor, Zara's chest bounced as she made her way over to Zeph, swaying her hips as she went. Zara ran a hand through her pure white, shoulder length hair and looked away from Zeph's piercing stare. Nissa coughed and Zeph started guiltily and looked sheepishly over at Nissa. Nissa gave Zeph an evil look and then turned her back to him. Zeph turned his head and looked back at Zara, who was staring at Nissa, looking confused.

"I'll meet you at the cosmodrome." Nissa snarled before transmatting onto her ship.

"What's her problem?" Zara asked, looking offended.

"She's mad that you're more attractive than her, and you're not even a real Awoken." Zeph chuckled. Zara blushed and quickly put on her helmet to hide it.

"I have been working on something for us Zeph. I need to see your ghost real quick though." Zara said. As if it had heard her(which it had) Zeph's ghost materialized and floated into Zara's hand. In the other hand, Zara summoned a ball of green energy which she then fused with Zeph's ghost. Instantly, all of Zeph's helmet alarms went off at once and his ghost fell to the ground and shook before lying still. As quickly as they'd turned on, his alarms shut off and his ghost floated back up.

"What did you do to my ghost?" Zeph asked, scared.

"I infused it with a considerable amount of Hive magic, and you should feel the effects of it at any moment, because that Hive magic will meld with you as well, meaning you'll become part Hive. My dad showed me how to do that years ago." Zara said proudly. Zeph shrugged and sent his ghost up into his ship. A few seconds later, Zeph's ghost transmatted Zeph and Zara onto the ship.

"Welcome to my little house." Zeph said as he slipped into the pilot's seat. Zara gagged and covered her mouth.

"Could you warn me before doing that? It's a little disorienting." Zara groaned. Zeph chuckled and Zara whispered something.

"What was that?" Zeph asked Zara.

"Nothing, just talking to my new friend." Zara said. Zeph's eyes widened in shock when another Ghost materialized in front of Zara. The Ghost was a dark green and Hive magic flowed from it. "My dad had it made for me, he said that he got someone named Rasputin to make it."

"Oh god. That's not a good thing." Zeph said, "Rasputin is an AI that lives under the cosmodrome that was built for war, and to protect the Guardians." Zara looked at her ghost and it sighed.

"I was built to monitor you, that is true, but the Hive Magic I was infused with fried the Monitoring systems, otherwise, they would have forced me to leave and rejoin Rasputin. Frankly, I don't much like Rasputin, he's kindof a dick head. My primary function, since my secondary function is impossible, is to function as your ghost and Revive and Serve you as any Ghost would. I am incapable of giving you the abilities of a true Guardian, but I believe you have that covered already." The Ghost informed them. Zeph nodded his okay, knowing that the Ghost spoke the truth, only because he had already scanned it. Zara looked around the small ship interior, the cockpit was up front with room for only 1 person, and there was the back area. There was a single cot in the wall and the room was about 4ft by 6ft with a low ceiling at about 6ft. In the Back was a door that opened up to a small 4ft by 4ft room that had a desk in it that had a large tub bolted to the wall next to it which had a ton of papers and random artifacts.

"Zara, come here." Zeph said from the cockpit. Zara turned and walked to the Cockpit, and noticed that there was room for one other person. It took Zara a second to realize that Zeph's seat had shifted forward and revealed a whole other seat and terminal with controls. "I don't normally need it, but I would appreciate a co-pilot this time. It's going to be a loooong journey to Earth." Zara slipped into the seat, and it moved forward some, essentially locking her into the seat. The panel lit up and a monitor raised up that showed her a radar. Zara started in surprise when the metal plating covering the glass above her to reveal what was outside. Zara watched as the magnet holding the ship moved and placed the ship by the launch gates. Zeph began hitting switches while mumbling incoherently to himself. Zara's panel lit up and she began activating the weapons, preparing them for use but not fully engaging them. Zara reached over and hit the switch that pulled up the co-pilot flying controls. Zeph looked in the small mirror he had next to him which allowed him to look at Zara, and she stared back. Zeph moved his hand over the launch button, and watched as Zara did the same. At the same time, Zara and Zeph hit the launch button and the engines flared up and the magnet released them. The ship shot out of the hangar and into space. Zeph looked back and stared at the dreadnaught for a second, before turning back around in his seat and engaging his hyperdrive.

"According to this, it should only take us a day or two to reach Earth from here." Zara said to Zeph. Zeph nodded and flipped another switch, which engaged his more powerful primary engines. The two of them were thrown back in their seats and held there by the sudden increase of speed for a few seconds before they adapted to it. Zara rechecked the travel time and was shocked by the change. With the increase in speed, they were expected to arrive in only a few hours now. 3 hours later, Zara yawned, then shook her head, and then jumped when she heard a strange grinding from the back of the ship. With blinding speed, Zeph disengaged primary and secondary engines and shut off the hyperdrive. Then, Zeph switched the ship to battle mode and activated the shields. Zara's flight control panel slid away and the weapons control panel pulled out in front of her. With practiced ease, Zara took the controls and her ghost took the weapons camera feed and put it on her Visor. Zara's heart skipped a beat when she saw what had pulled them from hyperspace, a fleet of Fallen ships had surrounded them and were charging up their weapons. Zara set the largest ship in her sights, and then noticed the House of Devils symbol on the side of the ship.

"Zeph, they are Devils. I'm going to hail them and let them know who we are." Zara said as she powered down weapons and sent a hail request to them. A Fallen Archon answered, sending video straight to her visor, and Zara was surprised to see that the Archon wore a Guardian's sigil on his Chestplate.

"Who are you, and why do you attempt to infiltrate our protected area?" The Archon growled in it's deep scratchy voice.

"Whose sigil is that?" Zara countered with her own question.

"It is the sigil of the Guardian Edward. Now answer my question." The Archon snarled.

"We are friends of the Guardian's Edward and Ana, we go now to meet up with them." Zara answered.

"Why do we detect Hive and Taken presence on your ship?" The Archon growled.

"The Guardian Zepheron wa infected with Taken power, but was not fully Taken, and I have learned to harness Hive magic." Zara answered. The Archon stared at her for a few seconds before it huffed and shouted at the other Fallen in their language and disengaged comms. Zara's visor cleared and she watched as the Fallen's weapons disengaged and they opened a hole in the force field that Zeph had almost run into. Slowly, Zeph maneuvered through the gate and after a few minutes of flying, they entered Earth's atmosphere. Zeph switched the controls to autopilot and released his seat restraint, which also released Zara. Zeph and Zara stumbled out of their seats and stretched to loosen their muscles, and Zeph groaned when someone hailed his ship's comm link. Zeph's ghost answered the hail, and sent the call straight to his helmet. Zeph silently thanked fate when he saw that it was an audio only hail.

"This is Commander Zavala of the Vanguard. State your business or be gone." Zavala snarled.

"I vow to be of no harm and wish to speak with my mentor, Ikora." Zeph answered back. Zeph heard Zavala growl before he heard the familiar static telling him that he had been transferred. Zeph slipped back into his seat and disengaged autopilot and stopped the ship and let it hover around half a mile from the Tower.

"This is Ikora of the Vanguard, you are interrupting my work so this better be good." Ikora growled.

"This is Alpha Warlock Zepheron of Fireteam Arc, with me I have a new Guardian, she is Initiate Warlock Zara. She was revived around 3 years ago and has been living on a Hive controlled planet. Her light has been tainted with Hive darkness, but she has mastered both. My light has been tainted with Taken magic, but I have learned to control it. Do I have permission to land?" Zeph said clearly and calmly, sticking to Guardian landing procedure in case they still held any issues with him because of the past, incident.

"Alpha Warlock Zepheron and Initiate Warlock Zara, you have full permission to land. The usual will greet you and I expect you to report to my office the second you get the chance." Ikora answered, her tone stern but not as threatening as it was before. Zeph piloted his ship into the landing bay of the hangar and released controls when he felt the magnetic equipment in the hangar secure his ship. Zara transmitted off the ship immediately and Zeph followed a few minutes after. Zeph stood in place for several minutes before going to move.

"HEY YOU!" someone shouted behind Zeph. Zeph turned and saw a sword descending for him. With near impossible speed, Zeph snapped out his Bolt Caster and blocked the Dark Drinker that was swinging for his head. Zeph glared at the Guardian that had swung the blade at him, and growled at him. Ryan jumped back and swung the Dark Drinker at Zeph's head again, and before Zeph could move Zara cast a bolt of lightning into Ryan's chest, throwing him backwards and knocking the Dark Drinker from his grasp. Zeph quickly deactivated his Bolt Caster when he saw Holliday storming towards them with the most murderous look ever on her face. As she passed Ryan, she kicked him in the ribs, right where the bolt of lightning had struck him, which pulled a groan from Ryan, and snatched up his Dark Drinker, which she then deactivated.

"I'm taking custody of this and will be handing it over to Cayde, and I'll let him decide whether you deserve it." Holliday snapped before spinning on her heel and walking away. Zeph walked over and pulled Ryan to his feet. Ryan looked past Zeph at Zara, who was staring daggers at Ryan. Ryan pulled away from Zeph and stormed out of the hangar. Zeph shook his head and walked out of the hangar with Zara following him. Zeph led Zara to Ikora's office, which was hidden in a small alley off to the side that no one ever noticed, and knocked on her door. The door opened itself, as usual, and Zeph and Zara made their way inside, shutting the door behind them.

"What the hell do you think you were doing?" Ikora snarled as she stormed out of the back room. "You nearly got six guardians killed, took four of them, sent them back, and now you have the nerve to show back up with a new guardian that has been corrupted? What is wrong with you?"

"What can I say, I had an agenda and I didn't want anyone to know." Zeph said calmly.

"Oh, and to top it off, you stole some of Eris's…" Ikora continued.

"Oh hell no, that wasn't me." Zeph said, interrupting Ikora, "That was that hunter, Nissa."

"Okay, well I'll let Eris deal with that, but you will NOT go around advertising that you have been corrupted, so lose the desolate armor and get your act together." Ikora snapped, "Also, you will be in charge of that new Warlock. I don't want to deal with her."

"Okay." Zeph said. Zeph closed his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds before reciting a quick incantation. The taken energy seething from Zeph's armor began to waver, and then simply faded away, returning his armor to normal. Zeph opened his eyes and found that Ikora was staring at him and he smiled at her, then remembered he was wearing his helmet still. Zeph took Zara by the wrist and led her out of Ikora's office before letting go of her and instinctively moving for his old dorm. Zeph reached the door to his dorm and pulled out his key. With practiced ease, Zeph fit the key into the lock and unlocked the door, then swung it open. Zeph walked in and waved for Zara to follow. Zara walked in and Zeph shut the door behind her.

"So, this is your dorm. It smells like death in here. Can I have my own dorm?" Zara asked, gagging a little on the smell.

"Nope. Since I'm in charge of you, Guardian code says we must share a room. I'd suggest you close your direct air vent and switch to the filters. I haven't been here in a few months now, so this place is definitely gonna need some cleaning. I'll go clean up the kitchen, which is most definitely the source of the smell, and you can clean up the bedroom. I only have one, so if you want the room I can sleep out here." Zeph said as he flared up his Solar abilities and walked into the kitchen. Zara shook her head and left the completely empty living room and walked into the bedroom. Zara was surprised to see that it was pretty well organized, for the most part. The bedroom was about 20ft by 10ft and had a large midnight blue king size bed in the left corner by the window. Directly across from the bed, in the other corner of the room by the other window, was a large circular desk with papers and random pieces of technology and half built/disassembled weapons strewn all over it. Zara shook her head and continued her inspection of the room. To the left of the doorway sat a large desk with a large flatscreen TV on top and a massive computer tower underneath, yet there was still room to sit under the desk, if there weren't all the cables and random controllers and unopened bags of chips and random bottles of soda. In the middle of the room sat an overturned rolling chair that had a few bullet holes in it and burn marks on it. Zara looked at the walls and realised that the black spots on the otherwise light blue walls were actually burn marks, not paint. Zara began moving around, inspecting things, and realised that someone had had a firefight in this very room, there were paintings and posters covering bullet holes and she moved the bed a little to find blood stains on the wall. Zara looked over at the closet and took a deep breath before opening it. Inside the closet was something straight out of a horror film. A dead creature (she had no clue what but guessed that it was Hive by the three eye sockets) was pinned to the wall by a knife that had been driven through it's neck and it's eyes had clearly been gouged out. By the state of decay that it was in, the creature had been pinned there for at least 6 months or more. It was still mostly in one piece, but it was covered in green puss and it's stomach was torn open, allowing it's guts to spill out and onto the floor. The walls and floor of the closet were splattered with Hive and Human blood, and there were several bullet holes in the floor walls and ceiling. Zara gagged and stumbled away from the closet in utter horror and disgust.

"You are princess of the Hive, you see things more disturbing than this everyday." Zara said to herself in an attempt to calm down, but it didn't work. She expected to see things like this in a Hive cavern, not in a Guardian's closet. Zeph quietly came in the room and saw Zara gagging with the closet door open and he sighed.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, I forgot it was there. The last inhabitant of this dorm before me seemed to be a bit of a, collector. I tried to cover it up so I couldn't see it, but it didn't help. I was always to scared to open the closet." Zeph said, his voice full of pain and regret. Zara waved her hand and opened a Hive portal, and several Thralls came running out of it, and into the closet. Zara turned away as the Thrall began devouring the corpse and in mere moments, the corpse, and all the blood and disgusting things in the closet, were gone. The Thrall ran back through the portal and Zara shut it.

"How's the kitchen?" Zara asked, bringing herself back under control.

"There was just a bunch of rotten food and the dishes needed washed. The dishes are in the dishwasher and I incinerated all the rotten food, which was all the food in the kitchen. It'll smell like burnt stuff for awhile but that's it." Zeph responded before walking away. Zara straightened back up and began organizing his things. She started out by organizing the papers and objects on the desk, then she took the broken chair and used her new solar capabilities to destroy it. Zara walked out into the living room about 30 minutes after Zeph had left the bedroom and found a note on the front door which read, 'Out shopping, went to get food and some stuff for you.' Zara sighed and went back into the bedroom. Zara stripped off her armor and flopped onto the bed with a sigh. Zara closed her eyes and a few minutes later she was asleep.

As Zeph wandered through the city, looking for the grocery store, he had and sneaking suspicion that he was being followed, but he thought he was just being paranoid, so he never noticed Ryan, silently and swiftly jumping from rooftop to rooftop, following Zeph. Zeph turned off into an alley to use as a shortcut and Ryan took that moment to strike. Ryan Jumped down towards Zeph and brought his Dark-Drinker up and swung it down for Zeph's head. Zeph heard a noise and by instinct only, snapped out his Bolt Caster and blocked Ryan's Dark Drinker. Ryan hit the ground and jumped backwards to glare at Zeph. Zeph narrowed his eyes and Ryan charged at Zeph swinging the sword for his throat. AT the last second, Zeph jumped to the side and kicked Ryan in his back as he went past, sending him sprawling. Ryan sprang back to his feet and turned around to face Zeph. Ryan charged Zeph again, this time swinging for his shoulder instead of his head. Zeph jumped straight up over Ryan's head and flipped around mid-air to fire a Shadowshot bolt into Ryan's back. Unphased by the restrained Shadowshot, Ryan spun and charged Zeph again, sword held straight out in front of him. Zeph brought his blade down to intercept Ryan's, driving both of their blade points into the ground, and Zeph headbutted Ryan, knocking him back. Zeph growled and yanked his sword up out of the ground and charged Ryan, who still clung to his own blade. Ryan barely blocked the first strike before Zeph hammered him with a flurry of blows. Miraculously, Ryan managed to block all of the blows, but was caught by the final blow, which was Zeph knocking Ryan's sword hand to far away to block and kicking him in the chest. The force of Zeph's kick threw Ryan out of the alley and into a shop stand, which shattered under the force. The people in the streets freaked out and began running away from Ryan, just as Zeph came out of the alley with blinding speed and charged Ryan. Ryan leaped up to his feet and jumped up onto a two-story building, and Zeph was forced to change momentum and leap as well, stealing away most of the force behind his swing, which glanced off Ryan's armor, but still shocked him pretty good. Ryan headbutted Zeph and sheathed his Dark Drinker in one movement. Ryan then pulled out his Dreg's promise and fired three shots into Zeph's chest, knocking him off the roof but not harming him any. Zeph landed on his feet and jumped back up onto the roof and slammed the pommel of his sword into Ryan's chest, knocking him backwards and causing him to lean forward a little to gasp for air. Zeph pressed his advantage and dashed forward, and swung a strong uppercut, hitting Ryan in the chest and knocking him about 10ft straight up in the air. Now supremely pissed off, Ryan activated Bladedancer and used his arc energy to launch himself down towards Zeph. Ryan slammed into Zeph and caused a massive shockwave, which caused them to smash through the roof and bring the whole building down on top of them. Ryan jumped out of the hole before the building went down and watched as the two-story building came down on top of Zeph. Ryan smiled and went to holster his weapon, when the Taken alarm on his helmet began to go off. With a thunderous roar and a blast of taken energy, the rubble of the building was thrown up and away from where it had been, destroying several surrounding buildings, and eliciting screams from onlookers. Standing in the middle of the remaining rubble, was Zeph. His armor had gone full Desolate, and a significant amount of Taken energy flowed from him. Zeph had wings made from the Taken energy, and they were constantly seething energy and flowing as if reshaping themselves. Zeph had 6 inch claws of taken energy on each finger and his helmet had three glowing white dots where a Hive would have it's eyes. Ryan's eyes widened in fear as Zeph opened his mouth, Ryan saw that what he thought was Zeph's helmet, was actually his real head. A tail curled out from behind Zeph and he growled. Zeph threw back his head and let out a deafening roar before flying up into the air, and charging Ryan. Ryan made a split second decision and turned and began running as quickly as he could, and Zeph gleefully gave chase with a roar.

Meanwhile on the Dreadnaught...

Oryx leaned forward in his throne stared at his clairvoyance mirror with excitement. Oryx began to laugh quietly as he watched Zeph finally lose control and fully embrace the Taken power. Oryx knew that at this point, Zepheron was far beyond his control, and was probably much more powerful than him, but if he didn't learn to control it, he would just go feral like he was now. Oryx sat back in his throne and waved his hand at the mirror, banishing the image from it's surface and returning it to a normal mirror. Oryx stood and went to speak to his only other son, the one he'd been hiding for such a long time. Oryx had a plan for Zepheron, and he needed his son for it.

Back on Earth...

Ryan jumped down from the building he was running across and dashed around a corner into an alley. Ryan heard a loud crashing sound behind him which told him that the creature that was once Zeph smashed into a building as it tried to turn and failed. Ryan looked up at the tower, the transmat elevator up was so close. Ryan looked back down and picked up speed when he saw that the end of the alley was near. Only seconds before Ryan reached the end,the creature landed at the end of the alley and swiped one clawed hand for Ryan's head. The moment the creature landed, Ryan dropped into a slide and slid underneath it and popped back up to his feet and continued running for his life. Ryan heard someone yelling in front of him and then he heard clear as day, "AD VICTORIAM!" Out of nowhere, another Guardian seemed to fall out of the sky onto Zeph's back. The Guardian somehow got tangled in Zeph's wings and they tumbled to the ground. Zeph unsummoned his wings and rolled around to kick the Guardian in the chest the second the Guardian had to their feet. When he saw the Guardian's face he froze and stayed curled up, ready to kick out but unsure of whether to or not. Ryan peaked out from the alley and saw that the Guardian was a blonde Awoken female, with red tattoos on one side of her neck. Ever so slowly, Zeph uncurled and climbed to his feet. The Female guardian sighed and reached out to touch Zeph. The second her hand touched Zeph's face, all of his taken energy drained away and he returned to normal, still without his helmet. Zeph's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he collapsed, but the female guardian caught him before he hit the ground. From behind him, Ryan heard footsteps and turned around just in time to catch Shannon's fist with his jaw, knocking his helmet off his head. Ryan fell backwards out of the alley and Shannon stormed up to him and stomped a boot down on his chest, pinning him to the ground.

"Good job Ryan, you managed to single handedly piss of Zavala, Ikora, and Cayde." Shannon sighed. "I won't say I'm mad at you for trying to kill Zepheron, but couldn't you have just sniped him or something?" Shannon sighed and moved her foot from Ryan's chest and pulled him to his feet before hugging him tightly. "I'm just glad you're not dead. I don't think I could live without." Shannon whispered in Ryan's ear, her voice cracking in fear and relief. "Please be more careful next time, I don't want to bury my only family." Ryan nodded and they walked over to the transmat terminal after Ryan retrieved his helmet. Ryan looked at the communicator on his wrist and saw that The Vanguard wanted to see him at noon tomorrow. Ryan and Shannon transmatted straight from the city to their dorm. Ryan and Shannon stripped out of their armor and Shannon tossed Ryan up onto the bed and she seated herself on top of him. Shannon whispered something into Ryan's ear before kissing him once more and letting out a moan.

Zeph awoke in a large room, surrounded by medical equipment and strange smells. Zeph tried to move and groaned in agony as his body screamed in pain underneath him.

"Morning babe. How come you never came by?" a very female sing-song voice said from his right. Zeph turned his head to see a dark purple skinned Awoken female with long pure white hair and dark red red eyes staring at him. Zeph's vision seemed to zoom out and he realised that she was wearing beat up black armor with a red lightning bolt on the side.

"Arya?" Zeph asked slowly, his voice coming out as nothing more than a whisper.

"The one and only." Arya answered, brushing her long flowing hair back from her face with one hand. Arya had been apart of Fireteam Arc, well at least until they were hit by an ambush from the Taken and Arya's sister was torn to shreds before their eyes.

"Where am I? What happened?" Zeph asked, his voice getting a little stronger.

"Well, what's the last thing you remember?" Arya asked.

"Well, I was walking through the city to get food for my dorm, I took a shortcut through an alley, and someone attacked me. We fought a bit, and we fought on the roof of the building. He hit me with bladedancer, we went through the roof, and then he was gone and the building came down atop me. The next thing I remember is a feeling of hunger and rage, and then there was your face, confusion, and blackness. Then I was here. That's all I got." Zeph said groaning as he tried to move, sending spears of pain through his body.

"Alrighty then." Arya sighed before continuing, "The guardian that attacked you, his name is Ryan, Blaze, Draker. He is a Hunter." Ana pulled out a tablet and pulled up a picture of the creature Zeph had become and showed it to him.

"What the hell is that?" Zeph said, his eyes widening.

"That, is you." Arya said, staring at Zeph. "This is where those feelings of hunger and rage came from. You chased Ryan to the tower, and you sort of just, let go and calmed down when you saw me." Arya's communicator beeped and she glanced at it before getting up and moving to the door of the bare white room. "We'll talk more later, just be good." Arya then walked out of the door and left him alone. Zeph leaned back, then froze when he heard a slight noise to his left where the window was. Zeph heard a rustle behind his bed, which was about 2 feet from the wall, and then he felt the chill of cold steel being pressed up against his throat.

"Well well well. What do we have here?" A strange deep scratchy voice said from behind him. "A false Guardian, or an untrue one. Either way, I'll take you and your little whores down. No response, well I'll let you in on a little secret that you don't know I know." The man with knife at Zeph's throat leaned forward and whispered in his ear. "I know where your daughter is, and she'll die much more painfully than you will." The would be assassin laughed and something in Zeph began trying to push it's way out. Zeph had felt this during his fight with Ryan, and had rejected it then, but now, he was to pissed to try that, so he embraced the feeling of pure rage coursing through him.

Arya was walking down the stairs to leave the hospital when she heard a loud explosion from upstairs, near Zeph's room. Arya turned and sprinted up the stairs, filled with dread and reached Zeph's floor. Where the door to Zeph's room had been, now there was just a gaping hole, and across from the hole was a dent in the wall that a man in silver armor fell out of. Zeph came walking out of the hospital room, wreathed in the taken energy like he had been when he'd lost control, but he seemed much calmer. Zeph walked over and lifted the man off the ground and tore his helmet off his head. The man had silver hair and half his face was burned. Zeph growled at him and then spoke.

"You shall NEVER lay a hand on my daughter. If I find that you even thought of touching her, I shall tie you down and let my Thrall tear you apart." Zeph snarled. Then as calmly as could be, Zeph let go of the man and turned towards Arya. "I apologize for breaking the wall, I had something to take care of." Then, the Taken energy around Zeph vanished and he began moving down the stairs. "I need to go check on my new roommate and trainee, Zara." Zeph said before disappearing from sight.

"May the Apocalypse, begin." The man in the hallway said, like a sports announcer before bursting into insane laughter. Arya went to ask him what he meant, but before she could, he lifted his pistol, placed it on the side of his head, and blew his brains all over the wall.

 **Next Chapter will focus mainly on Shannon, since Ryan is now on house arrest and can't leave his dorm. It took me much longer than I thought it would to write this Chapter, I got a little sidetracked by school essays(which are going to be fairly common for me this year). I need a group of 3 more Guardians, specifically, a rival fireteam for Fireteam Arc. I need names, race, appearance, armor, weapons, class, preferred subclass, and any odd quirks for personality you'd like to see in them.**


	10. Chapter 7: Ashes

**Chapter 7**

One Month later….

Ashes. That was all that remained. Shannon walked through what had used to be the outer district of the last city. There was nothing left. All the buildings, all the people, all the everything, it had been burned and destroyed in the attack. Shannon looked back at the rest of her new fireteam, they were walking around among the destruction, all of them as stunned as she was. Shannon reached the main square of the outer district and stared at the symbol burned into the ground. A Sun with horns and wings. The symbol of the fireteam that was supposedly all dead. Rumor had it that they had been killed while fighting the Cabal. But that rumor had been proved wrong when the six of them showed up with an army of Cabal and attacked the Last City. Shannon and several others had attempted to defend it, and they had succeeded, but to Shannon, they had failed. Shannon knew they would be back, and she was going to be ready when they did.

One month earlier….

Shannon sat in the only chair in her entire dorm and looked up from her research. Shannon had wondered about the strange symbols that Zepheron and Arya had on their armor, so naturally she began looking into it. What she had discovered so far interested her. The symbol belonged to one of the three best fireteams to exist. The fireteams were Fireteam Arc Devils, Fireteam Solar Serpents, and Fireteam Voracious Voidlings. They were mainly referred to as The Devils, The Serpents, and The Voidlings. According to the Vanguard records, The Devils and The Voidlings had disbanded but still lived, but the Serpents had gone missing on a mission to destroy the Cabal War Leader. The Voidlings had apparently retired and were no longer Guardians, but the devils were still active. The members of the Arc Devils were listed at the bottom of the page. They were, Zepheron(Leader), Edward(Sniper), Baris-7(Big gun), Jace(Support), Ana(Sniper and weapon master), and Arya(Assassin and tech expert). Shannon read further and saw that there was a twelve digit code underneath the names and Shannon gasped. Shannon remembered that code. During her training, she had been sent on a mission and Baris-7 had given her that code. 'If you are in trouble and can't get out on your own, broadcast this code across all networks. We will find you and get you out as soon as possible. Just remember, only use it if you are going to die if you don't. This calling code carries some weight.' That's what Baris-7 had told her before giving her the code and sending her on her way. The code was something Shannon had been trying to figure out for a long time. 14-26-35-79-08-42. She'd been trying to figure out what it was really for, and now she knew. The numbers corresponded with the numbers that the guardians had been assigned by the vanguard. Shannon yawned and laid her head down on the desk, tired from 6 straight hours of research, and she was asleep in a moment.

Ryan leaned back in his chair and sighed. It'd been three weeks since the 'Incident' and Ryan was bored as fuck. Cayde had shown up, threatening to remove his status as Guardian in front of Ikora and Zavala, but then laughing and joking with Ryan about it when the other two were gone. Zavala made Ryan in his weapons to Banshee and he had a cuff put around his wrist which prevented him from using his light. Ryan looked back at his screen and sighed. Ryan had gotten a message from someone that he had never even heard of before. It was a message asking him if he'd like to join some dumb fireteam called Solar Serpents, and apparently, you were required to use Solar powers ONLY. So naturally, Ryan had refused it, But now, Ryan was curious. He wanted to know who they were and what they did, so he had hopped on his computer and done some research. Fireteam Solar Serpents, they were a Fireteam of Six that had gone missing during a mission. Ryan had then employed his computer skills and his knowledge of hacking, and had traced the message sent and found that it was authentic. It had been sent to him from one of the messengers that had been lost with the team, which begged the question, where was it, and who had it. According to the records, they were all dead. It had been four years with no contact from them, why would they message him now? With this information in hand, he did the only thing he could, Call Zavala.

"What do **YOU** want?" Zavala snarled.

"I found something that you want to see." Ryan said, staring in surprise as another message from them popped up.

"Oh really? Are you going to pull some, I didn't do it, I was framed, bullshit?" Zavala laughed maliciously.

"No, I totally did that. I just thought you'd like to know that I'm getting messages from a Fireteam that was supposedly dead. I traced the message signal, it's coming from one of their communicators." Ryan said, smirking.

"What? Which Fireteam? What communicator?" Zavala snarled.

"A fireteam formerly known as The Solar Serpents. They are messaging me from one of their communicators and according to this, they're on Mars in the heart of a Cabal base." Ryan said. "But if you don't care…"

"DON'T YOU DARE!" Zavala yelled, interrupting Ryan. "I want you to head to the Vanguard war room and bring all your findings with you. I want them all on the presentation screen before I get there. You have ten minutes. Get going." Zavala snarled before he hang up. Ryan quickly transferred the data to his handheld tablet and opened the other message as he went to open the door. Ryan temporarily forgot about what he was doing because of what the message said. 'You will regret your denial. You and yours will burn.' and that was it. Ryan shook his head and rushed to the War room, accidentally bumping into Zeph on the way, without even noticing.

Zeph watched Ryan continue on towards the Vanguard's area and sighed. Zeph shook his head and continued on his way to his own meeting. After being here for three weeks and seeing his old Fireteam, he knew that there was no way he could get them killed. So, he had a plan. Probably not a good one, but a plan nonetheless. He was going to tell them, everything.

Arya sat in the old Arc Devil's meeting room with the other members of the old fireteam. Ana was leaned up against Edward, asleep. Edward wasn't wearing his armor, which was odd to Arya. Ana had one hand resting on her stomach and Edward had his hand on top of hers. Jace was sitting in a rolling chair, laid back with his feet on the meeting table. Baris-7 was standing in the back of the room, tossing a Hammer of Sol around. Everyone but Ana, who was still sleeping, looked up when Zeph opened the door and stared at him expectantly.

"Edward." Zeph said, looking over at him, "Will you please wake up Ana?" Edward nodded and shook Ana's shoulder, startling her awake. Baris-7 stopped tossing the hammer around and let it fade.

"What do you want from us?" Arya asked, yawning.

"Well, I'm sure you've all heard the rumor that I'm working with Oryx to destroy the Tower," Zeph started, getting nods from everyone, "This rumor is being spread by the Hunter, Ryan. Well, here's the truth. It's not exactly a lie, but neither is it the truth. For the first part of the rumor, yes, I am working with Oryx. For that second part, not really. I am not truly loyal to him. I do not want to destroy the tower, I want him to trust me so that I can get near him. Then, when he trusts me, and puts me at his back, I'll take him out and take his crown as Taken King."

"What is the point of that?" Ana snapped, irritable about being woken.

"Well, I have reason to be believe that our old rivals, The Serpents, are back. We know that they weren't dead, but I think that they've either allied themselves with the Cabal, or they've taken over the Cabal. Oryx has informed me that several Hive planets have been attacked by what appeared to be six guardians leading a Cabal army. So, my planet is to get the Arc Devils back together, minus Ana, and be in waiting for the Serpents when they get here." Zeph said calmly.

"Hey, I may be pregnant, but I'm not defenseless." Ana snapped. "I won't get in any real firefight, but I could just be a sniper."

"Okay then… You guys are taking this rather calmly. It's slightly disturbing" Zeph said.

"What do you expect? We know you well enough to know that you will do anything to protect The Reef, and we know that The Reef is one of Oryx's targets." Edward said. "Also, we will allow you to fight, Ana, but if your position is compromised, you WILL retreat as quickly as possible. Do you understand me?" Ana huffed in response and nodded her head.

"Alright, I want the five of you to meet my new addition to our Fireteam. I know that 6 is the typical number, but it seems efficient to get another." Zep said as Zara walked through the door. "Guys, meet Zara"

"Hello." Zara said. "My name is Zara. I am the youngest of Oryx's children, and I'm the only one left. Unlike my brother Crota, I am a wizard with the ability to take on any shape I please. Also, I'm afraid that the Titan in the back is considering throwing that hammer at me." Everyone looked back to see that Baris-7 had summoned his Hammer of Sol and was tensed up as if he were going to throw it. Baris let the Hammer fade away and huffed at the group.

"We can't trust her. Especially if she's Oryx's child." Baris-7 said.

"We can trust her fine." Zeph snapped, "If she weren't trustworthy, she wouldn't be carrying my child." Zara gave Zeph a dirty look and sighed. The rest of them just shrugged.

"So what do you want us to do?" Arya asked.

"I have different jobs for all of you. Arya, you're our tech expert, I want you to hack into the Vanguard's files and extract all useful info on the layout of the city and the tower, I also want to know the patrol habits of the city guards. Ana, you are our weapons master. I want everyone's equipment up to par, and give it a bit more Solar resistance. Edward, you are to help Ana. Jace, you are to place detection and shield beacons around the city to warn of an attack and slow it till we get there. Baris-7, you will do what you do best. Flirt with Holliday and get her to upgrade our ships. I'll be in charge of corralling the Taken and Hive, and we'll deal with Oryx. Oh, I almost forgot. Ana, that thing you have with the House of Devils. Could you get them to help?" Zeph instructed.

"No, they have become a little tied up with The House of Wolves." Ana responded.

"Alright then. That's all I needed. Arc Devils, dismissed." Zeph finished. Out of instinct, Edward, Ana, Jace, Baris-7, and Arya stood and gave him the salute they had come up with. The salute was simple, one fist over your heart, with arm held horizontal from wrist to elbow, the other behind your back at the same angle. Zeph returned the salute and left with Zara.

Shannon woke to an incessant pounding at her front door.

"I'll be there in a minute." Shannon grumbled as she sat up from her desk and stretched. Shannon looked at the time on her monitor and swore. She'd slept for 9 hours. Shannon got up and walked over to her door and flung it open. Standing in the hallway, looking irritated, was Ryan. Ryan pushed past her, walked into her living room, and flopped onto the couch. Shannon shut the door and walked into the living room and sat by Ryan.

"What brings you here Ryan?" Shannon yawned.

"I was taken off House arrest and I wanted to come visit my Fiance. Does that bother you?" Ryan said jokingly. Shannon leaned against Ryan and rested her head on his shoulder. "I have a question for you Shannon."

"You have questions, I have answers. Probably." Shannon mumbled.

"So, you're a Titan, I'm a hunter. So how am I taller and more muscled than you?" Ryan asked teasingly. Shannon scooted over a little and punched Ryan in his arm and gave him a look. "What, it's a fair question. No need to hit me." Ryan grumbled, smiling and rubbing his arm.

"You may be bigger, but I'm stronger." Shannon said, trying to pretend to be angry.

"You may be stronger, but I can last longer." Ryan said back.

"Oh right, that coming from the guy who can't handle me." Shannon teased. At that moment, Shannon's comm link rang. Shannon snatched up the link and answered it.

"What the fuck do you want?" Shannon snarled.

"That's your last warning Guardian." Zavala snarled. "I need you and Ryan to report to my office. Now." Zavala then hung up. Shannon sighed and got up. Ryan rolled his eyes and jumped up off the couch. Ryan transmatted his armor from where ever it was straight onto him.

"I'll wait in the hallway." Ryan said before walking out in the hallway. Shannon quickly donned her armor and stopped to stare at her helmet. Shannon had been a guardian for 3 years now, and she had died and come close to death more times than she had ever wanted to. Why her? Of all the people that could be revived, why her? What made her so much more special than all the others? Shannon shook her head and put on her helmet. Shannon grabbed Harrowed Doom of Chelchis and placed it in the harness on her back. Shannon went out into the hallway, locking her door behind her as she went and the two of them made their way through the tower and to Zavala's private office. Shannon knocked on the door and an answer came immediately.

"Enter." Zavala said through the door. Shannon and Ryan went into Zavala's office and were surprised at what they saw. Zavala's office was almost completely empty. There was nothing on the walls, no tables to hold things, no chairs against the walls for visitors. There was a single mahogany desk in the center of the room with a large velvet armchair behind it that Zavala sat in, leaning back with his fingers laced. Zavala stood when they entered and snapped his fingers. 2 navy blue chairs appeared in front of Shannon and Ryan, up to Zavala's desk so they could sit at his desk. "Sit." Zavala said. "We have much to talk about."

1 Week later…

Ryan lay still on top of a building and watched through the scope of the sniper he had got from Zavala as Jace looked around, believing himself unnoticed, and set down and activated a beacon in what he thought was a hidden area. Slowly, Jace stood and slipped away into an alley, out of Ryan's sight. Ryan waited several minutes before getting up, placing the sniper in the harness on his back and moving towards the beacon. Ryan went to one knee next to the beacon and flipped open the control panel. Ryan quickly deactivated the beacon without turning it off, this way it would still show up on their scans, but it wouldn't be able to be used for it's intended purpose. Ryan smiled and stood. He had been following Jace around every night, watching him place the beacons and then deactivating them once Jace was gone. Ryan knew that this was the last beacon, he had heard Jace say so when he had passed underneath his vantage point a while ago. Satisfied that he had done as he was told, Ryan turned and began making his way back towards the tower.

"Do you even know what those beacons are for?" Ryan's ghost grumbled as it materialized next to him.

"No, not really. What's it to you Ghost?" Ryan muttered back, ducking around a corner to avoid a guard patrol.

"Those were shield and detection beacons. Whatever they are doing with them, they're clearly preparing for an attack from outside." His Ghost hissed.

"So What?" Ryan asked as he quickly scaled a building and began running across the rooftops without making a noise.

"So, that means if we ARE attacked, and anything is destroyed, the blame for the beacons not working and innocents dying will be on you." His Ghost said, trying to stress this to Ryan, who just shrugged and kept running. His Ghost just sighed and dematerialized, she knew there was no point in talking to him anymore.

1 Week later…

Shannon sat at her desk as she tried to hack into Arya's computer for the third time, with no success. Shannon sat back in frustration and sighed. Shannon leaned forward to start again when her computer started going haywire. Anyone else would have panicked, but not Shannon. Shannon knew what was happening, Arya had detected her hack attempt and was sending her own. Shannon sat up and began furiously tapping away at her custom keyboard, trying to stop the hack, but she was too slow. Shannon was being outpaced by Arya, and was losing the fight. After only a single minute, Shannon lost. Her computer shutdown, and then flicked back on. The little green light that signaled that her camera was on, flicked on.

"So, you're the pest trying to hack me. Hasn't anyone ever told you not to hack a computer expert?" Shannon jumped when the voice, all distorted and strange, came from the speakers. "This is my computer, my business. It is none of your business, and you better be glad that all I did was wipe your computer. I could have fried your motherboard if I so pleased, so don't fuck with me. Got it bitch?" then the green light flicked off and her computer restarted. Shannon was devastated when she saw that Arya hadn't been kidding, the entire computer had been wiped. All of the stuff that Shannon had built and found over the past 2 years was gone. Her custom hacking software was gone, and in it's place, sat a folder that was named 'Don't try me'. Shannon opened the file and nearly choked. In the folder was a single picture. The picture was of Shannon's biggest mistake since becoming engaged to Ryan. A few years ago, Ryan had been sent out on a mission and Shannon had been alone for 3 months. One night, she'd gotten drunk and slept with a male titan she didn't know. She had no idea when that picture could have…. Wait, yes she did. This was the same picture the Titan had tried to blackmail her with before he went on a mission to investigate a Hive incursion and was killed. Shannon had been trying to keep it secret from Ryan, and had mostly forgotten about it. Now though, she was going to have to be careful. Shannon noticed that there was a text file in the folder also and opened. What was inside made her want to cry. Inside was a screenshot of Arya's screen. Arya had her email open and had made a draft to every Guardian in the tower, with the picture as the only Message. Underneath, all it said was 'Don't Mess with Me again'. Shannon closed the files and exited the folder. As quickly as she could, Shannon deleted the folder and shut down her computer. This was going so badly for her. She hadn't heard back from Ryan yet, but Zavala probably had him doing more stuff. Shannon switched on her communicator and prepared to tell Zavala that she had failed.

2 weeks later…

"Why do I have to stay up here?" Je5u5, the newest Titan, asked Shannon from atop a ledge overlooking the hangar.

"Because I said so." Shannon sighed. "I need you to keep an eye on the Hangar and make sure Zeph doesn't leave." Je5u5(mainly called Jesus) sighed and leaned back and looked out the Hangar bay doors. Jesus saw a strange black dot falling through the bright cloudless sky and squinted out at it.

"What is that?" Jesus asked, pointing at the dot.

"I can't get a full scan from here but speed and trajectory of the object indicate that it is a missile of some kind." Jesus's Ghost said.

"Thanks Bax." Jesus said, calling his Ghost by the name he'd insisted on giving it. Shannon turned to look right as the dot hit the far outer edge of the city, and there was a flash of light where it hit. Immediately, all the alarms in the Tower started to go off, and Jesus jumped down. The two of them heard the intercoms crackle, and then Zavala's voice come out.

"ALL GUARDIANS! GET TO THE CITY! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!" Zavala roared through the comms. Jesus sprang from his perch and transmatted onto his ship, then him and his Ghost took off for the fast approaching Cabal fleet.

Zeph, Zara, Arya, Ana, Edward, Jace, and Baris-7 met in their old meeting room, fully armored with their weapons.

"Jace, you were supposed to place those beacons. What the fuck?" Zeph snarled at Jace.

"He did place the beacons, they showed up on the map. I think someone followed him and deactivated them." Arya snapped. "Maybe even the same person that tried to hack me. Either way, we need to get out there." The Seven of them rushed out of the meeting room, the newly painted Arc Devils insignia on their armor flashing in the sun, and transmatted into their ships and set off.

"I don't care. Burn it all." Sorn growled at his fellow Serpents. The 5 of them started chucking more fireballs into the city as Sorn watched the destruction. The Cabal continued pouring around them and into the city with murderous glee, slaughtering any living creature they came across. Sorn's head whipped around when he heard a shout of surprise from some of the Cabal and an accompanying sound of a Nova Bomb going off. A Guardian walked out into the clearing and a bunch of the Cabal charged him, only to be taken out by another Nova Bomb.

"Why would you do this Sorn? These are your people." The Guardian asked Sorn.

"These are not my people." Sorn snarled. "The Awoken are my people, and I thought you would understand the threat these people pose, Varex." Varex took off his helmet, revealing that he was Awoken, and stared at Sorn.

"You disgust me. If I hadn't retired and still had my gun, I'd blow your brains out right now." Zarex growled.

"Good thing you don't have your gun then." Sorn laughed before pulling his hand cannon, Thorn, out of it's holster and putting 3 bullets into Zarex's head. Zarex's ghost appeared to revive him, and Sorn dashed forward and smashed the ghost in his hands. Sorn opened his hands and let the smashed Ghost Shell fall to the ground. Sorn stomped on the Shell and ground it into the concrete with his boot and laughed. A Cabal legionary rushed in front of him to follow a citizen running across the street, just in time to take the sniper bullet that had been meant for Sorn to the head. "SHIELDS UP! WE GOT SNIPERS!" Sorn yelled before grabbing the titanium shield off his back and crouching down behind it. Sorn saw that the other 5 had down the same thing, and in response, the snipers, he could tell there were at least two because of the different angles and directions the bullets were coming from, began taking out every Cabal they could hit. Sorn made a quick motion to retreat when he saw the 30 or so Guardian ships heading straight for them. The Six Serpents placed their shields on their backs and took off back towards the Cabal ship, which had long been emptied of it's several hundred soldiers, to escape and leave the Cabal behind. The Six of them ran into the ship and began taking off as soon as they could.

Shannon watched as the Cabal ship took off and sighed. She would pursue, but scanners indicated there were 437 Cabal running around the outer edge of the city. Shannon transmatted down into the city and began firing at the nearest Cabal the second she touched the ground. Within a few seconds, Jesus and Ryan had joined her and they began spearheading their way into the hoard of Cabal that had started charging them.

As one, the 5 Arc Devils transmatted into the city and began to drop every Cabal in sight. 4 of those 5 Guardian were in perfect synch with each other, the fifth was Zara, who did not know their routine, but she was a fast learner. After only a few seconds, Zara fell into sync with the others, and they began a Dance of Death, destroying every Cabal that dared approach them.

Ana sat ontop of a building in the city, sniper over the ledge and scope to one eye. Ana took a few more potshots at the fleeing Guardians and then switched to firing at the Cabal. Ana killed Cabal after Cabal, but they just kept coming. Ana shifted her sniper to look up at the Cabal ship and caught the slight glint from the back window. Ana sprang to her feet the moment she saw the unmistakable glint of the sniper scope and turned to run, but she was too late. Ana felt the bullet impact her upper back, right below her shoulder blades, and shred right through her armor. Ana felt the bullet lodged in her spine, and she fell to the ground, unable to move. Ana couldn't hear it, but the bullet split open and the 5 grams of liquid potassium was released. The potassium reacted with the water in Ana's blood, and Ana felt the bubbling in her blood before the Potassium went off like a bomb, tearing a large hole in her back and shredding most of her internal organs. Ana let out a single scream in agony, and then everything went dark.

Ana jerked back to Earth, revived again, inside the building she'd been on top of,with a strange feeling in her stomach.

"That was too close." Ana's ghost sighed. "If that bullet had hit an inch lower, you would have lost your child. It suffered a little trauma, but nothing serious. I'm sorry for not noticing the sniper."

"You don't need to be sorry, that was my fault. What you need to do, is give me that gun I gave you to hold onto." Ana snarled, charging up her arc energy till it was swirling around her like a mini storm with her at the center. "I have some Cabal to kill." Ana's ghost materialized the gun into her hands and then vanished, probably back in her bag or something. Ana smiled evilly down at the gun she'd lovingly named The Night Stalker. Ana looked up as a Cabal Legionary busted into the house. Ana smiled and pointed the gun at the Cabal before pulling the trigger.

Edward looked over towards Ana's perch when he heard the loud boom, and all he saw was the empty roof. Edward stared over at the building for several more seconds, wondering what had happened. Edward started when a louder, much more powerful boom was heard and the front of the building Ana had been on top of exploded outwards. Edward saw Ana charge out of the building and she holstered the weapon she was carrying. Edward sprang to his feet and went to run for Ana but then she just vanished.

Ana activated her Arc Blade and shot forward with enough speed to cover the 20ft distance between herself and the nearest Cabal in only a second. Ana dashed through the Cabal hoard, stabbing and killing every Cabal she could reach, until her Arc Blade ran out. Ana collapsed to her knees in the middle of a group of Cabal, exhausted from her murder spree. Ana looked up at the Cabal Centurion in front of her, and stared as it pushed a button on it's arm, and a red light blinked to life on all the Cabal. Ana's vision darkened and she fell forward, unconscious. Before she hit the ground, Ana's ghost transmatted her up to her cloaked ship and set it on autopilot to the Tower.

Shannon saw the red light blink to life on the Cabal, and she quickly switched to Defender and put up her Ward of Dawn. Jesus and Ryan didn't even think to ask, instead, they dashed into the Ward, only moments before the bombs attached to all the Cabal went off, destroying everything in their blast radius. Shannon stared, horrified, as the solar bombs wiped out everything, buildings, people, plants, animals; Everything was destroyed. As the smoke cleared and the Ash settled to the ground, Shannon spied several more Wards of Dawn, each with several Guardians, some she knew and some she didn't, within. Shannon dropped her Ward of Dawn and stared out at what used to be the Outer Housing District. Shannon's communicator beeped, and she checked her message. Shannon sighed, she would have smiled but the death and destruction around her was too much. Shannon's request for a three man fireteam was approved. She had been assigned leader and was given Ryan and Jesus as her allies. Shannon looked around again, hoping that something may have survived, but all she saw, were the Ashes.

 **So, a lot just happened. I'm sorry it took me so long to write this Chapter, I kept writing and rewriting it. I could never decide on what to do. I like the way it turned out this time. I haven't posted on Twitter in awhile, I'll start doing that more. So, if you want regular updates, follow me on Twitter HiveKingCrota. Next time, on The Other Side, more things will happen to advance the plot.**


	11. Chapter 8: Before the Storm

**Chapter 8**

2 Weeks later...

Ryan looked up from the work he was doing and watched as Ana walked into the hangar, limping a little. Ryan lowered his head and continued to make repairs on what used to be Eris's ship. Ryan reached into the engine and pulled out several fried pieces and sighed. He was surprised that this much of Eris's ship had survived after being hit by the dreadnaught when some stupid Guardian had gone on a mission to make it easier to board the dreadnaught. Ryan tossed the fried pieces of the engine into the pile of other stuff that was beyond repair and stepped back to see how it looked. Ryan had stripped the ship of all of its outer armor and outer frame, and at this point, the only thing that remained was the ship's main inner frame, the engine, and the damaged hyperdrive.

"What the hell happened?" Ana asked as she stopped a few feet behind Ryan. Ryan inwardly groaned, he had been hoping Ana wouldn't come over here.

"Cayde sent some idiot on a mission to the dreadnaught to get a transmat and patrol beacons down. For some damn reason, Eris's ship was outfitted with a stealth device and it failed, and then the drednaught fired it's weapon. Then this happened." Ryan sighed as he went back to work, tearing out more pieces that needed replaced.

"Shouldn't Amanda or Baris-7 be working on this?" Ana asked as she picked up a piece of the engine from the pile and turned it over in her hands.

"Look, I applied for a position here in the hangar, and I got approved. I was put on repair duty, which really sucks, and I'm trying to do my work. So could you stop touching things and leave me alone, I'm in a bad mood already." Ryan snapped at Ana. Ana put the piece down and walked off without saying another word. Ryan groaned out load, silently cursing himself for being such a jerk. After the attack on the city two weeks ago, he'd realized that if he hadn't deactivated those beacons, several of his fellow Guardians would still be alive, several thousand civilians would still be walking around the outer district, and there would **BE** an outer district. The number of civilian casualties wasn't solid, but the number was around 30,000. Injuries were around 100,000. Guardian casualties were iffy, there were around 30 missing Guardians, but only 18 dead Ghosts had been found in the sweep of the destroyed section of the city. Ryan heard clicking behind him and turned around to see Amanda walking towards him. Ryan mentally prepared himself for another session of bereavement and anger, and held his breath as Amanda surveyed his work.

"Holy fuck." Amanda breathed as she saw the true damage done to the ship. "I'm sorry for keeping you on this, from the look of it, there can't be anything salvageable from this. Also, sorry for being so rude to you. I was frustrated and angry and you were normally the closest living being." Ryan breathed a sigh of relief and cleared his throat.

"Well, I know it doesn't look like it, but there is a considerable amount that is still salvageable. The Nav systems and a couple engine parts are over there." Ryan said, pointing towards a pile of dirt and ash covered pieces, "They're a little dirty but they should work for the most part. The rest of this will probably need to be melted down and remade." Amanda went to touch a piece of the frame and Ryan grabbed her wrist on instinct. "Don't touch that, if you were to pull on that, The frame of that ship would crumble. My Ghost has almost completed the digital reconstruction of Eris's ship so we can rebuild it, but I need it to stay just like that." Amanda just nodded and started walking away. Ryan turned back to the ship and began working on taking the engine apart again. Ryan heard the beep on the tablet next to him which indicated the digital reconstruction was complete, and his ghost floated down to rest on his shoulder.

"What're we gonna tell Eris?" His Ghost sighed.

"Absolutely nothing. We're not going to tell Eris anything." Ryan chuckled, oblivious to the footsteps approaching him. "We'll tell Cayde and he'll tell Eris…"

"Tell me what?" Eris said as she stopped behind Ryan. Ryan cursed himself for not paying attention and turned to greet Eris.

"Well, nevermind I guess, we can tell her ourselves." Ryan muttered to his ghost. "There's nothing we can do. Your ship is totaled. It can't be repaired. We'll have to build you a new one." Eris sighed and glared at Ryan with her three glowing eyes. "You need something? I need to finish dismantling it." Ryan said as she continued staring at him.

"Actually, yes." Eris growled. "I have a job for you, if you're willing. If you do well, I can get you a permanent position. I can pay, but not in money. I can pay in parts and pieces than can be sold for around twice the pay you get per week, for each piece."

"Alright." Ryan said, putting down his tools. "I'm allowed to walk away from this job whenever I please, so I'm listening."

"I need to get into a Hive cavern, but I can't open the door alone. I need your help." Eris sighed, running her hand through her recently washed and brushed hair.

"What's the catch?" Ryan said, sensing an unspoken but hidden in the sentence.

"To make the door work, you have to pass as Hive. The only I can get that to work, is if you _are_ part Hive. Meaning if you take this job, I will be fusing Hive DNA into your body." Eris growled, knowing that he was going to turn it down, just like everyone else.

"Alright, as long as I don't actually look like a Hive when you're done, I'm in." Ryan said, putting up his tools. Eris was speechless, she had approached around 20 other guardians and they had all turned her down. But here was Ryan, he was always doing everything to piss her off, constantly turning her down and dismissing her. So him accepting scared her a little.

"Come with me." Eris said calmly before walking away. Ryan quickly sent a message to Amanda telling her that Eris had a job for him, and then hurried after Eris with his ghost trailing behind. Ryan followed Eris for a couple minutes until they reached a dead end hall with no doors. Ryan went to speak and then Eris placed her hand on the wall. Ryan lost his words as Eris's touch brought the wall to life and it moved out of the way, vanishing into the floor like it never existed and revealing a very Hive looking chamber. Eris pushed Ryan into the room and the wall slid back up behind him, locking them in.

"So, there is where you go when you disappear." Ryan said, surprised. Eris pushed Ryan out of her way and walked past him.

"I need you out of the armor and your outer clothing, they do not need to be destroyed." Eris said as she began messing with a bunch of stuff on a table. Ryan quickly removed his armor and clothing, then realized his ghost wasn't around. "Your Ghost cannot follow us here." Eris said, seeming to read his mind. "Now, sit." Eris growled pointing towards a strange chair. Ryan sat in the chair and laid his hands on the armrests. Suddenly, metal restraints closed over his wrists and ankles and held him in place. "Sorry, but I would like to keep myself from dying by your hands. This does get a bit painful." Eris chuckled, turning around with a needle in her hand that was filled with a strange blackish green liquid.

"Is that…" Ryan began hesitantly, now sweating with fear.

"The blood of a Hive Knight. I'm going to inject it into your body, and the Hive magic seeping from that chair will mix with the Hive Blood, and will alter your DNA. You will have full access to your light afterwards, but you'll be able to channel Hive magic as well. There shouldn't be much of a change, but you may gain a bit of muscle and physical stature, making you appear more as a Titan over the next few weeks. Don't try to struggle to much, please." Eris said, smirking as she approached Ryan with the needle. Eris bent over his arm and watched for a second before inserting the needle and injecting the blood into Ryan's veins. Eris pulled the needle out and then tipped the chair back. At first, there was nothing. Ryan looked down and saw that his veins were starting to become visible, then the pain started.

Eris watched, smirking, as the Hive magic began mutating Ryan's DNA. His visible veins began to turn a dark blackish green and his eyes turned a bright Hive Green and began to glow. At the same time, Ryan bucked against the restraints and gritted his teeth in pain. A few moments later, the wall behind her began to move, and Eris didn't even have to turn around to know it was Ana, since she was the only other person who could get in and out of here, for now. Eris turned to face Ana and was immediately concerned by the strained look of pain on her face.

"What's wrong Ana?" Eris said as she helped Ana into a normal reclining chair.

"I think, I think the baby's coming. Isn't this too soon?" Ana gasped, screwing up her face in pain.

"If what I said is right, it's actually a little late. Normal Hive 'pregnancy' or incubation lasts five months. Maybe the human genes extended it a little longer, but your Hive genes and the Baby's Hive genes have accelerated the growth, so it's probably time." Eris said, lifting Ana and placing her on one of the beds. "I have to finish dealing with this one, in the meantime, please call Edward and ask him to come to this hallway and knock on the wall, I'll let him in." Eris then turned back to the struggling Ryan and saw something she had been hoping she would see. Not only was Ryan compatible with the Hive blood, his body readily accepted it and the Hive magic, which allowed his Light and the Hive magic to mix and become one. The only downside was that Ryan was going to take on a few Hive aspects. She wasn't sure which, but they would show themselves over time.

After a few more painful minutes, Ryan felt the pain recede and he let himself relax.

"There, you should be good. I shall remove your restraints now." Eris said, as she released the restraints. Ryan heard a voice in his head command him to kill her, and without even thinking, obeyed. Ryan lept from the chair and went for Eris's throat, and was immediately slammed back down into the chair, knocking his head into the back of the chair and bringing him back to his senses. Ryan watched as the strange wave of energy that he could _**see**_ pulsating through the room vanished, and his blurred vision returned to normal.

"What was that? I heard a voice in my head." Ryan asked, slowly standing up and rubbing the back of his head.

"That was an echo of Crota's final command for the Hive. He ordered them to hunt me down and kill me." Eris said, turning back to Ana.

"Ana? Are you Ok? What are you doing here?" Ryan gasped as he quickly put his clothes back on and grabbed his armor off the floor. His only answer was a growl from both Ana and Eris. At that moment, there was a knock on the wall leading to the hallway they'd come in through and Ryan instinctually dashed back and faded into the shadows in the corner. Eris used her hive magic and the wall opened, and Edward entered. The moment Edward was in, Ryan used one of his abilities as a Nightstalker to turn temporarily invisible and dash past Edward into the hallway, right before the secret door closed.

"What did she do to you?" Ryan's ghost said worriedly as it floated down to him.

"Nothing that needs worried about." Ryan answered as he quickly donned his armor and set off to go to his private training room.

Je5u5(Jesus) groaned in pain as he stood up from the training mat and stared down Shannon.

"Really, Jesus, you are a Titan. You need to act like one. Don't just strike randomly, you have to have a rhythm to your fighting style. If you ever want to be like an asgardian barbarian, you have to hit harder, faster, and know when to strike and when to block." Shannon growled as she squared her shoulders and prepared for another training round. "Now, again!" Jesus immediately lashed out, aiming for her left, making the same feint he had every other time, and just as predictably, Shannon blocked it and was already in the motion of blocking his right hook, but it never came. Instead, he jumped up and kicked at her head, catching her by surprise and hitting her square in the nose, knocking her back. Jesus smiled, knowing that his previous pain was worth the surprised look on Shannon's face.

"Just because I'm a still a kid up here, doesn't mean I don't know how to pretend to be bad at something." Jesus chuckled, dropping into the fighting stance he had created himself. Jesus had had a lot of time to think about it, and had managed to come up with a fighting style that only he knew.

"You're not a kid, you're a little shithead." Shannon said, smiling. Jesus smiled back and prepared to put his technique into action. Shannon's communicator alarm beeped and she sighed. "Well, guess we're done with the fighting training. Now we actually have something to do. We need to report to Zavala immediately. Get your armor and weapons and let's go." Jesus quickly grabbed his armor, donning it quickly and set off after Shannon, who had managed to don her armor faster from experience with it. It only took them a few minutes to reach Zavala in the war room(the area where they normally are).

"Slight change of plans." Zavala growled. "Ryan has been given a secretive solo mission so you two will be operating alone. You two are being sent to Mars to investigate the disappearance of a 12 man fireteam stationed at Alpha Base 39. I want the two of you gone from here on your way to Mars in 10 minutes. Only bring what your ghost can carry, any heavier will hinder you. This is a stealth mission, do not get caught. I repeat, do _**NOT**_ get caught. We're counting on you. Dismissed." Jesus and Shannon transmatted straight to their ships, anything they needed their ghosts already had, and they set off for Mars at full speed.

3 hours later…

Shannon peeked around the corner of her pillar at the base that the Fireteam had last been at and there wasn't a movement to be seen. From his position on top of a nearby tower, Jesus could see nothing. Jesus quickly peeked back through the scope of his sniper when he saw some movement but didn't see anything. Unbeknownst to the two Guardians, there were hundreds of Cabal, hidden in the sand around them, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Unknown to all of them, There were millions of Vex, sitting in there own little space time, watching for **THEIR** time to strike. Shannon motioned for Jesus to descend and he quickly slipped down from the tower and handed Shannon her extra sniper back. The two Guardians started walking out into the clearing, and just their luck, Jesus steps on one of the Cabal. Three seconds later, the Cabal come bursting from the sand and rush the Two Guardians. Jesus immediately activated his Hammer of Sol and began throwing some into the horde and just slamming some of the hammers into other Cabal. Shannon switched to Striker and did the first thing she could think of as a Centurion closed the distance between them. She activated her fists of Havoc and punched out, connecting with the Cabal and blowing it and the other cabal directly behind it to smithereens. Shannon then dashed out into the horde and began striking at any nearby Cabal with her fists of Havoc. With a sudden roar of portals opening and closing, the Vex began pouring out amid the Cabal and began taking down anything they came across, but avoiding the Guardians for some reason. Soon enough, with the help of the Vex, they had killed off the Cabal. Shannon turned to attack the Vex, but Jesus held out a hand to stop her as a Minotaur approached them.

"You." The Minotaur screeched out, pointing at Jesus. "I can sense you in the collective, yet you act on your own. How can this be?"

"Uhm, I'm not Vex, but I do have some Vex parts. I was stuck on Venus and my body was damaged, so I repaired it with Vex tech. That's probably why." Jesus said, staring at the minotaur.

"We no longer have a leader, and we can all hear and feel you, yet none of us can influence you. Meaning you must be the new leader chosen by the Creator before it was destroyed." The Minotaur screeched. As one, all the Vex around them went down to one knee and began making a buzzing sound.

"Holy shit, this is awesome." Jesus breathes, looking around at the Vex. "I can hear all of their thoughts in my head, but I can sort through them." Jesus stops before saying in a loud but stern voice, "Vex. Rise and Stand at Attention." As one, the Vex rise and stand at attention, holding the Vanguard salute. Shannon just stared at the Vex and then looked at Jesus.

"You know what, you stay here. I'm gonna go report this to Zavala." Shannon growled as she rolled her eyes behind her helmet. Jesus chuckled and Shannon transmatted back to her ship and shot off towards Earth and the Tower. Jesus shook his head and stared out at the Vex. He had a strange feeling, as if he could see and hear everything. It took him a moment to realize, that was exactly what was happening. He was staring through all the eyes of all the vex and gaining auditory input from all of them. This amount of information would drive any regular exo crazy, but the pure Vex tech he had implanted was capable of moderating the info, filtering it to only give him what was necessary. Jesus began sifting through all the Vex, watching them through their eyes till he found what he was looking for. The Vex on Venus, fighting some of his fellow Guardians. Jesus willed the Vex to stop and come to him, and they obeyed, vanishing from the area and appearing in the group in front of him. Jesus stood there, how long he did not know, but by the time Shannon returned, Zavala following her in his ship, Jesus had gathered every Vex he could find around him. There were billions of them, trillions even, covering every inch of available land in sight. Shannon and Zavala transmatted down, Zavala keeping his auto-rifle at the ready. Jesus opened his eyes and laughed at Zavala.

"What are you laughing at, recruit?" Zavala snarled.

"You. You look so tense. Don't worry. They won't attack you unless you attack them." Jesus chuckled.

"How are you doing this?" Zavala growled, staring at all the Vex.

"Well, Honestly, I don't know, but it's cool." Jesus said, laughing. Suddenly, all of the Vex began moving, and started vanishing quickly. "Hey, where are you going?" Jesus said, surprised.

"The Demons are attacking one of our bases on Venus. We are going to defend it." One of the Minotaurs screeched. After a few more seconds, all of the Vex were gone.

"Demons?" Jesus muttered, closing his eyes, tapping into the eyes of a few of the Vex. "Oh, the Taken. There are so few of them, almost like…" Jesus snapped his eyes open and started to run back towards his ship. "THE TAKEN AND HIVE ARE COMING HERE! THE ATTACK ON VENUS IS A DISTRACTION!" Only seconds after the words left Jesus's mouth, hundreds of Hive Tomb Ships appeared in the sky and Taken started spawning everywhere. Shannon and Zavala hopped on their sparrows and shot off after Jesus, and as Shannon passed him, she pulled him onto her sparrow and they kept going.

"GHOST! TRANSMAT TO MY SHIP, NOW!" Shannon yelled at her ghost, swerving around Taken and Hive, and hitting any she couldn't avoid.

"I'M TRYING!" Her Ghost shouted back in her helmet. "I CAN'T GET TO IT, I THINK THEY'RE JAMMING TRANSMAT SIGNALS!" Shannon growled and pressed down on the throttle more, increasing the speed and ramming anything that gets in her way. From behind her, Shannon heard a loud boom, an intense heat at her back, and then a Hammer of sol went flying in front of her, somehow faster than her sparrow, and exploded, killing a large group of Hive in front of her. Shannon smiled as Jesus threw another Hammer of Sol, wiping out another chunk of Hive and Taken. The Two of them kept going, Shannon driving and Jesus clearing the way, until Jesus ran out of solar energy. Immediately, Jesus pulled out his Patience and Time and laid it on Shannon's shoulder, and began firing at them, using his Hawkmoon to quickly take out any that got to close.

"Where are we going!?" Jesus shouted in Shannon's ear as she took a quick swerve around a corner, causing Jesus to drop his Patience and Time. "FUCK!" Just as quickly as it disappeared, Jesus's Sniper reappeared in his grasp.

"I don't know!" Shannon shouted back. Jesus went to fire another shot from his sniper, but all he heard was a click.

"FUCK!" Jesus quickly attached his sniper to his back and went to fire his Hawkmoon, but once again, all he got was a click. "Shannon, I'm out of ammo!" Jesus yelled against the roaring wind. Right as he said that, Shannon's sparrow sputtered and died, but kept going just enough to launch them off a cliff. The two of them quickly ditched the Sparrow, and let themselves fall. About 50 feet or so from the ground, the two of them activated their glide, slowing them down quickly, but not fast enough. The two of them slammed into the ground, and Jesus heard his leg crunch, and he lost feeling of it. He didn't register much, as his head hit the ground next and he was out.

Shannon climbed to her feet, sore from hitting the ground so hard, and looked around for Jesus. He was lying about 20 feet away, on the ground unconscious. Shannon stumbled over to him and groaned when she saw the state of his leg. He had clearly landed all of his weight on that leg, because it was crumpled. The metal had been bent out of shape and there were wires and stuff sticking out where there shouldn't be. Shannon looked up and saw that the Hive were trying to find a way down, and if they didn't get away, they'd be sitting ducks. Shannon lifted Jesus and got him onto her back and began jogging away, at a reasonable pace. For anyone else, the task would be impossible, but Shannon was a Titan. Not just any Titan, the only Titan so far to beat Zavala in hand-to-hand combat. Shannon jogged for a while, how long she did not know, but when they had crashed, it'd been about mid-day, and now the sun was setting, so she'd been going for awhile. As she went, she kept her eyes down, making sure not to trip. Soon enough, the sun had set and darkness covered the land. Shannon saw a cave in the little light her Ghost was supplying, and she made her way towards it, tired and in need of a rest. Shannon trudged to the back of the cave and laid Jesus on the floor and went to sit, leaning against the wall. In only a few minutes, Shannon was asleep.

Zeph snapped awake, unsure of where he was, and then he remembered. He was in his bed in the tower, so what was this warmth? Zeph turned his head slightly and saw Zara curled up next to him, fully dressed, and he remembered everything. The two of them had gone for a drink, and then they'd had a few too many, and they'd somehow ended up back here. Thanks to his Guardian and Awoken regenerative abilities he wasn't going to suffer from a hangover, but he knew not about Zara. As quickly and carefully as he could, Zeph slipped out from under Zara's arm and off the bed and went to check his computer. Zeph quickly put in his password and froze when he saw what his first notification was. He had received an message from a comm unit that was supposed to be gone. Zeph cautiously opened the message, expecting a virus of some kind, but all there was was a single picture with a two words underneath. Zeph felt his rage building as he stared at the picture of his daughter, gagged and bound to a metal chair. The words read simply, You Lose. Zeph's anger boiled over and he slammed his fist into the table, letting out a shockwave of arc energy and frying the computer and scorching the table. At that moment, there was a knock on his front door and he snarled and stormed over to it and flung it open. Standing in the hallway was a Guardian that Zeph had believed dead for a long time. Zeph's anger vanished, and he backed up VERY quickly in fear.

"Hello Zeph. Have you kept my room in order while I've been gone? You didn't go in my closet again, did you?" He said menacingly from within his helmet. The Guardian was a titan, wearing all Spektar gear with a dark black and red shader. Zara stumbled out into the living room and froze when she saw the Guardian in the doorway. The Titan shoved his way past Zeph and walked up to Zara and looked down at her. Zara was around 5ft 4in, and this Titan was 7ft 9in, and was built like a truck. Zara felt her heart skip a few beats in terror as she stared up at the menacing Titan. "Who is this little Gem?" He growled. For the first time in her life, Zara was glad she'd taken a bath to wash the scent of Hive off of her.

"M-m-my n-n-names Z-Z-Z-Zara. N-n-nice to m-m-meet you." Zara stuttered, terrified of the Titan.

"How polite. My name is Naref Zaltosh. What are you doing here with my… apprentice?" The titan growled, clearly amused by Zara's fear.

"He's my t-t-teacher. I'm a n-n-new G-G-Guardian" Zara stuttered, taking an involuntary step back. "I h-h-hope you d-d-don't m-m-mind, but I c-c-cleaned out the c-c-closet."

"Oh? You did?" He snarled. The lights in the room seemed to dim for a second and then went back to normal. "Hmm. I guess it's for the best. I didn't lose much." He shoves Zara out of the way and storms off into the bedroom. Zara runs over and clutches onto Zeph, nearly crying in terror.

"W-why does he s-scare me so m-much?" Zara asked, on the verge of crying.

"He has that effect on everyone but Zavala. You need to go. Now." Zeph whispered quickly. Without any arguments or questions, Zara fled from the room and Zeph shut the door and went into the bedroom where Naref was sitting on the bed, going through a folder and talking to his ghost.

"So, Zeph. You miss me?" Naref said, shutting the folder and setting it aside.

"You know I didn't miss you, Naref. I can't stand you and never have been able to. You're a pretentious asshole who is SUPPOSED to be dead. The Cabal nuked you. Twice. Your ship was destroyed and we lost all contact with you for 5 years. Now you just show back up with no warning. What is wrong with you?" Zeph snarled at him, feeling his rage building again.

"Well. Looks like the little spark has finally grown to a full blaze. Surviving being nuked isn't hard. Just hid my ghost and after they nuked me and left, my ghost revived me. Easy peasy. I sorta had to steal a Cabal ship and it didn't have a functioning warp drive, so I sorta chilled in there for a few years in one of their stasis things. You know what is wrong with me. Now, have you happened to recieve anything about your daughter? I lost contact with her guards a few days ago." Naref said casually, reaching up to remove his helmet. With no warning, Zeph roars and launches a bolt of lightning at Naref's head, which Naref proceeds to block. "I'll take that as a bad sign. Do we need to contact your mother?" Naref asked, yawning.

"We will tell no one. I will deal with this myself." Zeph snapped before storming from the room and leaving the dorm.

2hrs later...

Ryan stood in the middle of the training room, no armor and no shirt, drenched in sweat. Laying around him where several destroyed punching bags, and countless dummies. Ryan looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers, watching the muscles loosen and tighten. Ryan closed his fists tight and watched as the 2 inch spikes in each knuckle slid out. Ryan smiled and released his hands and let the spikes slide back in. Ryan stepped over the dummies and went to stare at himself in the mirror. In such a short amount of time, his body had changed so much. His eyes were a bright green and his skin had darkened and hardened slightly, his black veins stood out against his caramel skin, and he had already noticed a change in his physical endurance, strength, and speed. Ryan ran a hand through his jet black hair and moved closer to look at his new teeth. His previous set had straight up fallen out and a new set of razor sharp serrated teeth had replaced them. Ryan shook his head when he heard the voice again, whispering in the back of his head, commanding him to kill. Ryan quickly donned his armor and left the training room, making sure to put the bookshelf back to cover the entrance. Ryan quickly made his way to Eris's room and knocked on the door, a little hesitantly. No answer came, so he made his way to out to the yard to relax. Ryan shook his head, a strange female voice getting louder the closer he got to the yard. Ryan stepped out into the yard and saw that only that newbie Guardian, Zara, was out at the moment, sitting in a chair. Ryan walked up behind her, the whispering and hissing getting louder the closer he got to her, until he could hear the voice clearly, but couldn't understand the language, and it was definitely Zara's voice.

"Why can I hear your voice in my head?" Ryan snarled in her ear, making Zara jump in fear. Zara scrambled out of the chair and stared at Ryan, wide eyed.

"You. You're… Hive. How?" Zara gasped, staring at him.

"That's not important. Why can I hear you in my head?" Ryan snarled, moving around the chair and grabbing her arm in a vice-like grip, making her squeak in pain.

"It's because… I am part Hive… like you. Hive have… a mental… connection to… each other. Please… Let me go." Zara said slightly panicked and trying to pull away from Ryan. Ryan let her go and watched as she bolted away, disappearing into the halls. Ryan heard the same whispers from before and shook his head to clear it again, then sat down to wait for Eris.

Oryx sat back in his throne and laughed. Without even knowing it, Eris had handed him a new pawn for this deadly game they were playing. One of the Traveller's own Guardians was now infected with Hive magic, and Oryx knew he could use this Guardian to end the Traveller's reign of terror, if only the Guardian would stop resisting him like the one he'd taken still was. Oryx was sobered a little by a new thought. He'd been told that Zeph and Zara had never made it to Earth, yet there she had been, right in the tower. If that was the case, had she betrayed him? Was that Taken Guardian turning his own daughter against him? Oryx growled in anger. He would not know what was going on until the day of the attack, and if his suspicions proved to be true, then he was done for and his empire would fall.

 **I apologize for taking so long with this chapter, I've had a lot of school work piling up on me. I finally got it done, and all the shenanigans are starting to come together. Everything has a place, everything has a time, and that time will come, soon enough.**


	12. Chapter 9: The Beast Within

**Chapter 9**

2 Days Later

Ryan struggled against the voice in his mind. He had lost control of his body, and was fighting to regain control from the oppressive power of Oryx's mind. The Guardians around him knew nothing about the battle waging on in his head, all they saw was Ryan moving swiftly towards the dorms. Swiftly, he turned the corner into the dorms and headed for Jace's room. Ryan fought every step, but Oryx was much more powerful than he. He knocked on Jace's door, and Jace answered it. With overpowering force, Oryx forced Ryan to leap forward and grab Jace around his neck. The two of them fell to the ground and Ryan began choking Jace to death. Only seconds before Jace fell unconscious, someone grabbed the back of Ryan's armor and pulled him off and went to throw him out the door. With his perfect Hunter skill, and Oryx's knowledge and intelligence, he turned the throw into a flip, wrenching the person's hand from his armor. Ryan turned and tackled the Guardian behind him, who he barely identified as Baris-7. Baris-7 struck for his head, and managed to knock his helmet off, and his eyes widened as he saw Ryan's greenish skin with his glowing green eyes. Oryx shoved his will further upon Ryan, and forced him to pin Baris-7 down. Ryan felt something strange begin to rise up from within him, something beastly and full of bloodlust, and Oryx supplied it with power and strength, then let it loose. With a snarl, the beast within took over and Ryan balled up both fists, the spikes in his knuckles slid out and he began to pummel Baris-7's head. Ryan threw punch after punch, and he smiled, the beast within pleased with the feeling of metal bending and snapping under his fists, the sound of electronics sparking and failing. Only a few feet away, Baris-7's ghost materialized, and with the reflexes of a savage Hunter, Ryan sprung off Baris-7 and smashed the ghost back into the wall with one fist, feeling it crumple under his massive strength. Ryan heard Oryx laugh in his head as Oryx suppressed his beast and then withdrew from his mind. Ryan gasped and stumbled as some of his power vanished, leaving him weakened. Ryan fell to his hands and knees and looked over at Baris-7, or at least, what was left of Baris-7. Ryan had smashed Baris-7's head to the point that there was no possibility that he could survive, and he had smashed his ghost, so Baris-7 was gone. Ryan looked over at Jace as he felt his heart sinking, and for a moment, Jace looked dead to him, but then he saw Jace's chest moving. Ryan knew that he could not stay here, and that if he was caught, he'd surely be executed. Ryan stumbled to his feet and ran, going straight for the hangar. It was only a matter of time before Jace and Baris-7 were discovered, and Ryan planned to be long gone when they were. Ryan transmatted to his ship once close enough, fired up the engines and shot from the hangar, reaching orbit and then jumping half-way across the solar system in only a few seconds. Ryan leaned back in his chair and cursed himself for being so stupid. If he hadn't deactivated those beacons, those people wouldn't have died, and he never would have felt bad enough to accept that request from Eris. Ryan sighed when he realized he'd left his helmet in Jace's room, but then tilted his head when he realized his vision was weird. He could see more than before, and he could see Hive Tombships traveling in through their portals. Ryan turned his chair, got up and went to look in his mirror and froze and gasped when he saw his reflection. His skin had turned a blackish green, and he had developed a third eye on his forehead. The feeling, the Beast within him, stirred again, and Ryan pushed it back down. Whatever Oryx had done to him with his powers, Oryx had set in motion something Ryan knew could not be reversed. Ryan was becoming a full Hive Knight.

Shannon grunted in pain as a large piece of rock hit her in the chest, causing her to stagger. Shannon regained her balance and counted her trek through the deserts of Mars, right through the middle of a powerful windstorm, carrying Je5u5 on her back, him covered with what was essentially a tarp. They had been going for awhile, only during the day. Shannon went to take another step but her foot only met air and she pitched forward and they fell down into a shallow cave. The two of them rolled to the back of the cave and Shannon groaned and opened her eyes. Standing right above her, staring down at her curiously, was a Fallen Vandal. He bore no crest or markings and seemed to be alone in the cave. Shannon slowly pulled herself to her feet and moved the tarp of Jesus, allowing all his cursing to be heard.

"Fuck. That fucking hurt. Where are we now?" Jesus growled, rolling himself onto his back, his leg still destroyed.

"You… are… on… Mars. This… is… my… Home." The Vandal slowly said, hesitantly, as if he knew English, but couldn't quite remember how to speak. Shannon lifted Jesus up and propped him against the wall in a sitting position and went over and placed a shielder in the entrance of the cave, allowing the air purifier within to make the air inside breathable and the air outside to stay outside. The moment it was breathable, Shannon began to strip out of her armor and dump the sand and dust from the joints and to get the sand out that had somehow gotten into her boots and gauntlets. The Vandal sat back down on the floor and watched curiously. "You… are… a… Guardian?" The Vandal inquired.

"We both are. We're trying to find our way back to our ships. There's a bright gold ship and a dark purple. You seen them?" Shannon responded, setting her armor aside and sitting down and leaning against the wall next to Jesus.

"Did the… gold… one… have a… hammer on it?" The Vandal asked, quickly becoming more used to talking. Jace nodded and the Vandal made a noise which sounded disappointed and a little sad. "The Taken destroyed them. The rubble… is over to the… uh… North." Shannon and Jace swore quietly and sighed.

"Then we're trapped here. No comms, no ships, no nothing. I've tried everythi… wait." Shannon started, stopping as she realised she hadn't tried to broadcast to Baris-7 and the rest of the Arc Devils yet. Shannon quickly input the numbers into her comm unit and hit the broadcast button. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the green success light lit up. Shannon smiled, but then something happened. A message appeared on her comm unit. She quickly brought it up and she felt her heart sink. They could not come get them. The Tower was on lockdown, and according to what she was reading, Ryan was wanted for killing another Guardian in cold blood. Shannon shut down her comm unit and shook her head. Whatever had happened, Shannon refused to believe that Ryan had had anything to do with it. Jesus leaned back and sighed, he knew that there was no help coming for them. Shannon looked over at the Vandal, who had fallen asleep, and soon, Shannon was asleep as well.

Ana awoke in her room, curled up around one of her pillows and slowly climbed out of bed. Ana stumbled into the living room in her nightgown and found Edward, sitting on the couch with their Daughter, Belen, in his arms, singing to her quietly while feeding her a bottle of formula. Belen was more Human than Hive, and the only Hive traits she was showing so far was her immense strength. She had pale white skin and glowing emerald green eyes with bright gold-red hair. Ana smiled and sat down next to Edward, who looked up at her and smiled. Ana leaned her head against Edward's shoulder and watched Belen hungrily devouring the formula.

"I think maybe we should consider Cayde's offer. Being discharged from the Vanguard and living in the City permanently is probably the best thing we can do for Belen." Edward said suddenly.

"What will we do about her when she gets older?" Ana asked Edward, not really expecting an answer. "She's so strong already, almost as strong as you or me. What shall we do if her strength gets the better of her and she hurts another kid? What if she breaks something, or someone? They'll segregate her from the rest of the children and they'll treat her like the other guardians treated me when I first showed up." Edward sighed and shook his head in response, and Ana sighed as well.

"We'll figure it out when we get there. For now, let's just appreciate what we have." Edward said quietly. Ana closed her eyes and tucked her legs up and quickly fell asleep.

1 Hour Later

Zeph looked around to make sure no one was watching as he started up his ship. He and Zara needed to leave the tower. He had received a distress call from Shannon, and although he'd sent her a return message that he wasn't coming, only because Cayde was watching the channel, he was going to get her. Zara quickly slipped from the hidden tunnel as Zeph waved her over and the two of them transmatted onto the ship and shot out of the hangar in mere seconds. Instantly, the ships comms came on and Zavala's voice came through.

"I don't know where you think you're going, but we are under lockdown. You have 10 seconds to turn around and return to the hangar." Zavala growled.

"With all due respect, Sir, I cannot, in good conscious, leave a fellow Guardian on a hostile planet to die alone. And you should know, with my ship, 10 seconds is much to long." Zeph responded, right before he activated his hyper drive and made a jump. Right as they activated the hyperdrive, a single blast from one of the Tower's guns hit them and knocked out the navs, then they made the jump. Zeph turned the ship in a circle, unsure of where they were, but stopped when he heard Zara gasp. Zeph looked at her and looked up, and he felt his heart sink. They were currently in orbit of an unknown planet, and coming off the surface of the planet were hundreds of thousands of Hive Tombships. Zeph quickly pivoted the ship and did the only thing he could think of, he dived towards the planet. He had no nav system, so any jump would be a bet on their lives, and he was not about to do that. So he dived, quickly building up speed and heating the air up around the ship to the point that they became a fireball in the sky. With his ship being smaller than the tombships, he was able to escape them quickly, but the light flashing on his dashboard worried him. The engines were damaged and were being expected to give out any second. At the exact moment this occurred to Zeph, the engines spluttered and then stopped working. Behind him, Zara made a little squeaking sound, and 3 seconds later, they crashed into the ground. The ship bounced once, then went nose first into the ground and drove a massive trail in the ground, both it's side wings snapping off and the sound of metal grinding and tearing, until it came to a shuddering, hissing stop. Zeph was thrown back in his seat at the stop, but it didn't matter. The initial impact had thrown him forward and he'd hit his head on the front view window and he'd been knocked out. Zara was knocked out by the final stop, as her head slammed back into the wall behind her.

3 Hours later…

Zara came to, not quite sure who or where she was. All she knew was that the back of her head was cold and sticky, and she was dizzy and didn't want to be here anymore. The noise that had awoken Zara came again, a loud sparking and grinding noise, like someone cutting through metal with a laser cutter. Zara opened her eyes and looked around. She seemed to be in a ship, and if the beeping coming from the front and the smell of burnt something wasn't clue enough, this ship had crashed. Zara reached up and felt the back of her head, which was strangely sticky and her hair was matted. She pulled her hand back and dimly registered that her hand was covered in blood. The noise that had awoken her drew her attention, and turned her head to the back of the ship and it took her a moment to realize the sparks coming into the ship and the red line on the metal was an indication that someone was cutting into the ship, and they were almost in. Zara tried to get up, but found that she had no control over her legs, and the world tilted around her. Zara managed to push herself from the chair, but she just fell to the floor, where she watched the cutting stop and someone pulled the metal back to reveal a blinding light, and beyond the light, darkness. Some strange two-legged creatures ducked into the Ship, and right before Zara lost consciousness, she came to the conclusion that they were Humans.

12 Hours Later…

Zeph awoke to the quiet sound of people talking, and groaned as his massive headache kicked in. Zeph heard the muttering stop, and suddenly there were people touching his arms and legs, lifting him into a semi-sitting position and trying to get him to open his eyes. Reluctantly, Zeph opened his eyes, squinting against the light, and looked around. Around him were 10 Humans, all dressed in Black with face masks on, but Zeph could tell they were Human because of their eyes. One of them held a cup of water to Zeph's lips, and he drank thirstily, grateful for the water. An eleventh one showed up at his bedside, and from the size of her hips and breasts, Zeph assumed it was a She, and he was right.

"I know this may seem strange, but do you understand me?" The woman said, with a semi-high voice with a strange accent. Zeph nodded, or tried to, but he couldn't move his head enough to do that. So he tried to speak. The first three times, he couldn't get anything to come out, but he tried clearing his throat and speaking again.

"Y-yes." Zeph croaked, his voice hoarse from lack of water. The woman let Zeph have some more water, and he drank it and sighed, his throat feeling much better.

"What's your name?" The woman inquired. Zeph opened his mouth to respond, but he came up blank.

"I… I don't know." Zeph said truthfully, now worried about himself.

"Do you know how you got here?" The woman asked.

"Not really. I remember flying, then these strange black ships, and then a bang. The nothing." Zeph said. With a small flash, Zeph's ghost materialized next to the bed and all the people around his bed jumped back and grabbed for their guns.

"Do not worry. I am just a Ghost, I am here to take care of him, my Guardian. His name is Zepheron and he is an Awoken who comes from Earth. From what I can tell, he has suffered minor brain damage and considerable Memory Loss due to the crash." Zeph's ghost said as it turned to face the Humans. The humans visibly relaxed, but the the woman spoke.

"What, may I ask, is an Awoken?" She asked, curiously.

"Too long a story to tell right now. In the essence of things, he's a more physically and mentally superior Human." His ghost replied before vanishing.

"Wait… There was a girl with me… her name is… is… Zara." Zeph said, trying to get up.

"Calm down, we have her too." The woman said, keeping Zeph from getting up. "She suffered as much memory loss as you, plus she managed to crack her skull, and as far as we can tell, her spine was broken at about low rib level. If she survives the procedures, she'll be paralyzed from the waist down, forever." Zeph closed his eyes and sighed, relieved that she was alive, but then another thought popped into his head.

"What about…" He began.

"She lost the child she was carrying in the crash, if that's what you were gonna ask about. I'm sorry, but the child was too far gone by the time we got there." She said, interrupting Zeph, and answering his question. Zeph cursed silently and laid back, feeling his heart sink in pain, even though he barely remembered why he cared so much. Zeph closed his eyes, and darkness quickly consumed him and he was asleep once again.

Oryx leaned back in his throne, looking smug but slightly irritated. He had implanted the seed of evil within Ryan, making him more easily controlled. He had used his new puppet to take out a powerful Titan, and had managed to strand those two Titans on Mars. The only thing that irritated him, is that while he may have discovered his Daughter's treachery, he had shot them down, but was unsure if they had died. According to the Hive that found their ship, it had crashed, but someone had cut it open from the outside and they were gone. Oryx heard the doors open behind him and he turned to see that one of his generals had entered his chamber.

"How much progress have you made?" Oryx growled deep in his throat.

"The ritual is almost complete. Give us just a few more days, and he will rise again." The Knight growled back.

"I have already given you more than a month. I want him back in 2 days, or you will suffer. Now get out." Oryx snarled. The Knight bowed and scurried from the room, shutting the doors and Oryx turned his chair back around to stare out at the planet he had come from, or at least, what remained of it. Oryx sighed, he had hoped he would be capable of controlling Zeph, but it was not going to happen. He was either going to have to release the Beast dwelling within Zeph, or kill him. Oryx stood and laughed. He had the weapon he needed. Oryx moved over to the cage hanging from the ceiling. The cage was barely big enough to hold a full grown man, but for the 12 Year old Awoken child within, it was plenty of space. The girl had been kidnapped by a group of Humans, clearly bounty hunters of some kind, so Oryx had taken the liberty of killing the kidnappers, and taking the girl to use for his own plans. As Oryx approached the cage, the child within drew back as far away as she could and curled up, trying to hide from his sight. Oryx laughed, and the child began to cry. Oryx hit the cage, bringing a cry of pain and fear from the child as the cage rocked and spun a little, throwing her around.

"You do know why you are here, don't you, child?" Oryx growled at the girl. She answered by shaking her head and then curling up on the floor of the cage. "Well, let me tell you. Your father, your 'daddy' took my daughter from me. So, I took you from him. You are here because of him, he doesn't love you anymore."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" The little girl shouted as she jumped up to her feet. "My daddy loves me. My daddy is a super hero. He'll come beat you up and save me, you overgrown roach!" Oryx snarled at her, angered by the roach insult and he shot a single spike of Hive magic into the cage, stabbing it through her right shoulder. The girl screamed in pain and crumpled, holding her shoulder and crying, curling back into a ball on the floor.

"Your 'daddy' will not make it in time. By the time he gets here, you'll be dead, and my son, Crota, will live again." Oryx snarls, before laughing darkly and stalking away, leaving the throne room and slamming the doors with a resounding boom.

 **This Chapter is shorter, yes I know, but while it was shorter, a lot of things are happening. I figured I'd end it here to give you guys(and myself) a little time to process what just happened. To recap real quick, Shannon and Jesus are stranded on mars, in a cave with a docile Fallen Vandal, Zara and Zeph are stranded on an unknown planet heavily populated by Hive, Baris-7 is dead, Jace is in critical condition, Ryan is on the run and slowly becoming full Hive, and everything is going well for Ana and Edward.**


	13. Chapter 10: Changes

Chapter 10

1 Day Later

It had barely been a day since she had received her wound, but it had already completely healed. The girl stood pulled the 2 strange looking hairpins with skulls on the ends from her hair, letting her hair fall down her back, reaching about mid-back. The girl stood up on her tiptoes and reached up and slid the hairpins into the lock of the cage she was trapped in, and began fiddling with the lock. Her heartbeat sped up as she heard noises from outside the large chamber the cage was in, but she dared not try to move any faster in case she dropped one of the hairpins. The girl heard a soft click, and then the door to the cage opened just a little, enough to let her know she could escape.

Quietly, she pushed the door the rest of the way open and slowly and carefully lowered herself out, but she was still hanging a good 10ft above the ground. The Girl let out a small breath and dropped to the ground, landing on her feet and then rolling forward to change her momentum to stop herself from receiving any sort of injury. The girl carefully and quickly redid her hair and replaced the hairpins to keep it up. From a few feet away, behind a small wall, she heard a hiss and a sigh. Slowly, she pulled up one pant leg and slid the knife her father had given her from the hidden sheath on her leg, and crept over to the noise. She peeked around the corner of the wall, and saw a sleeping Hive Knight.

Without even thinking about it, the girl ran up and jumped onto the Knight and plunged her blade into it's third eye, and as it awoke and reared it's head to roar, she slit it's throat, so that instead of a roar, all it did was gurgle, and then die. The girl smiled, proud of herself and turned and ran, slipping into a tunnel she'd seen the Thralls using yesterday, disappearing from the room.

Mere seconds after the girl vanished into the tunnel, Oryx came bursting into the throne room where the cage was, laughing all the while.

"Come girl, it is time for the rit…" Oryx began, but stopped as he stared at the empty cage, hanging from the ceiling with the door wide open. Oryx let out a deep snarl and dropped down to the ground, no longer flying and let out a roar of anger, causing his two remaining daughters, Ir Anuk and Ir Halak, who are also the two that kept their gifted names, to come floating in, confused until they saw the empty cage.

"Father." Ir Anuk began in her screeching whisper of a voice, "It appears that the girl was just as resilient as her father." Ir Halak made a noise, and Ir Anuk growled at her.

"Are the two of you still fighting over which of you will get the girl's father once we have him?" Oryx sighed, raising back up into the air and pushing his daughters out of the way to leave the room as he headed for his War Room. Ir Anuk and Ir Halak rushed after Oryx.

"I say he should be mine, Anuk gets all the good things because she is the one that always kills the invaders. It's not fair." Ir Halak said, pouting(although no one could really tell).

"I could care less, keep me out of your fight. Now, I need you two to hunt that girl done and bring her to me, ALIVE. Now go." Oryx snarled, and both daughters just stared at him for a moment. "I SAID GO!" Oryx snapped, and both of his daughters zipped off down the hallway, each going a different direction. Oryx opened the doors to his War Room and froze when he saw what was within. Sitting at the head of the table, was the only Guardian that Oryx feared. Oryx had managed to pay off the cabal to kill him, and they mostly definitely had, they had killed everything on the whole damn planet, but here he was, sitting at the head of his table with all of his generals dead in their seats with either their throats slit or filled with bullet holes.

"Long time no see, Oryx." Naref chuckled, leaning back in the chair, wearing the armor he'd designed to resemble a Hive Knight.

"You… you're dead. The Cabal obliterated you, and the planet you were on." Oryx said quietly, dropping down to land on the ground.

"Clearly, they failed." Naref said as he got up and his armor changed, going back to his regular coloring and design. "You see, I'm not very happy about that. We had a deal, you leave the girl be, you get to live. Well, you tried to kill me and now the girl is missing. I heard that she was here, but I couldn't find her. So, I came in here to ask them, and they tried to kill me. Hence them being dead. So. Where. Is. The. Girl?" Naref snarled, his voice dropping down to a deadly whisper.

"I… I don't know." Oryx said, pulling all his power to him to get ready to teleport away. "She escaped her prison." Naref sighed and stood, readying his Gjallarhorn.

"Well, then your usefulness has expired." Naref snarled before firing the rocket. The second the rocket would have hit Oryx, Oryx simply vanished as if he were never there, and the rocket streaked out into the hallway and slammed into the forcefield Ir Anuk had just put up to defend herself. Ir Anuk took one look at Naref, and then she let out a shriek which echoed throughout the entire ship and then she vanished, just like Oryx. Naref sighed and transmatted to his ship, moments before a massive swarm of Hive came flooding into the room, then, seeing nothing, disperse. Unknown to them all, hidden barely 10ft away from where Naref had been, in one of the secret tunnels, the girl had seen everything and now fled back into the tunnel.

As the girl fled deeper into the ship, she knew one thing. If she were to escape, she would need to somehow get ahold of one of the Guardian Ships she had seen on her way in with Oryx. But before she could do that, she needed to find her sword. And then, maybe, she would prove to her father she was capable of becoming a Guardian, just like him. The girl smiled as her Ghost, yes, Her Ghost(for she had died and been resurrected with her father) materialized to light her way.

Ryan maneuvered his ship into a fleet of Hive Tombships, praying they would not attack him, and his prayers were answered. Instead of attacking, the Knight flying the lead ship used the Hive mental connection to ask him who and what he was. Ryan only responded by setting his ship to autopilot and disengaging weapons, and that was apparently enough for the Knight. Ryan climbed from his seat and went to inspect himself in the mirror once again. It had been a day since he had taken the life of a Guardian, and, as Oryx had said earlier, it was the beginning of his Initiation into the Hive. Ryan did not want to join the Hive, but he could not return to the tower, for any reason. Ryan looked into his three green eyes and sighed. At this point, he had lost everything. Shannon was dead, he had lost what little of his human appearance he'd had left, and his ghost had warped and changed from the contact with his darkness. Yet, something seemed strange about all this. He felt freer than before, even though the Hive had a Hive Mind, he found that each Hive could defy the Hive Mind as they pleased, they just did not due to the tyranny of the leaders. He had also begun to learn more about the history of the Hive. They had once worked with The Traveller, but the Traveller had betrayed them. It had decided they were of no more use to it, and created an army, the first Hunters, to destroy them. The Hive had proved more resourceful than the Traveller had suspected, and they had managed to steal some of it's light and eventually, their desire for revenge had twisted the Light to fight them and had altered their appearances. Ryan lifted one clawed hand and flexed his fingers, and watched as the muscles moved under his skin. Ryan closed his eyes and imagined himself doing the same, but as a human still, back when he used to have no control over his anger issues. Ryan's eyes jerked open when he felt a sudden burning sensation all over himself, and started to freak out when he realised he couldn't see. Just as quickly as it started, the burning faded and his vision cleared, but was odd, as if he no longer had his third eye. Ryan shook his head and looked down at his hand, and felt his heart skip a beat as he stared down at a VERY human hand. He jerked his head up and stared into the mirror, and began to laugh as he stared at his own face. Somehow, he had gone back to looking like his human self, but he could still tell that the Hive was still within him, it was just hiding. Ryan slipped back into his seat and disengaged autopilot and veered out of the fleet and turned his ship back towards Earth. If he could keep his Hive appearance hidden, then he might be able to claim that he was being set up. There was always that Zara girl to throw the blame at, since everyone knew she had Hive in her.

Ana stood in her bathroom, gripping the edge of the sink as another wave of agony went through her body. It had started that morning. She had awoken to a sudden burst of pain and they had been coming, more and more frequently. Ana looked up into the mirror and stared at herself. Her eyes were glowing and had turned a greenish orange. As another wave hit her, she stumbled back against the wall and sank to the ground and curled up on the floor. Another wave hit her, stronger than all the others and she covered her eyes and began to cry. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but it hurt. It hurt so much, it made her want to shoot herself. She wanted to get up and go to the hospital, but she couldn't move due to the pain. Ana grabbed her comm unit and tried to send a message to Edward, who was out with Belen, but she was shaking too much to type out a message, and she knew he couldn't receive calls till he got a new unit, so she called the only other contact on her list, Shaxx. He picked up after the first 'ring'.

"Hey Ana. What's up?" Shaxx said. In the background there was what sounded like an explosion, so he was probably in the middle of training.

"I n-need help. It hurts… everywhere. I…" Ana started, and then another wave of agony hit her and she gasped and started crying more.

"Ana! Where are you!? Why isn't Edward with you!?" Shaxx said, and then there was a loud noise, like an air horn.

"He's… out with… Belen. I'm… at home… I can't remember… where." Another wave of agony passed through Ana, and that one was too much, cause she passed out.

Shaxx opened the door to Ana's and Edward's apartment in the upper district of the Last city and looked around.

"Ana!?" He called, receiving no answer. Shaxx went through the small house, looking in each room and each closet, until finally, only the two bathrooms were left. The one out in the hall was empty, so Shaxx went and knocked on the door to the locked bathroom in the master bedroom.

"Ana?" Shaxx called as he knocked. When no answer came, Shaxx had his ghost unlock the door. Lying on the floor, curled up by the sink, was Ana. She was unconscious and barely breathing, and as Shaxx moved closer, he saw that there was blood coming from the corner of her mouth. Shaxx quickly called for the medical units from the Tower, since they were better than any in the city, and then he picked up Ana's comm unit and quickly sent a few messages to Edward, telling him what was going on, and that Ana was being taken to the Tower. Edward replied that he'd meet them there, and a few minutes later, the medical unit arrived, had Ana on a stretcher and had her back to the tower in barely 5 minutes.

Ana opened her eyes, and looked around. At first, there was nothing. Just darkness. Then everything cleared and she was standing in the middle of a large chamber, sort of like an area that with stands filled to the brim with watching Hive. From the large cave like opening a figure came into a view. It was a massive Knight with a strange glowing sword. Ana's heart dropped when she figured out who, and what, it was. Crota, for that was who it was, stepped from the shadows and the opening behind him vanished. Ana shook her head and stumbled backwards, refusing to believe it was real. She had put help put Crota down when they raided they Hellmouth. Then she realized, it wasn't real, it couldn't be real. She was dreaming, Crota couldn't hurt her.

"That is where you are wrong, girl." Crota snarled, stabbing his sword down in front of him. "Yes, we are in your mind. However, I can still kill you. You are my greatest enemy, and therefore, for my return, I want you as my general. Join me, or I will eliminate your mind and give your body to Omnigul."

"You know I will never surrender to you. I beat you once, I can do it again. You will NEVER return as long as I draw breath." Ana snarled, summoning her Nightstalker bow.

"You think you can fight ME!? How hilarious. You are weak, girl. The Hive DNA in your body is rebelling against you, attacking the rest of your body and eradicating the human within you and replacing it with Hive." Crota laughs, as he spreads his arms and the Hive in the stands pour down into the stadium. "The Hive within you will fight you, it will over run you, and there is nothing you can do to stop it." Crota vanishes, and Ana switches to Blade Dancer right as the Hive charge, and she dashes into their midst, killing every Hive she can get her blade into.

Mere moments after Ryan's ship re entered Earth's atmosphere, every single one of his lock on warning went off, and he disengaged his weapons and sent a hail request, which was immediately answered by Zavala.

"You better have a DAMN good reason for returning Hive boy. You have 20 seconds to give me a good reason before I shoot you down." Zavala snarled.

"With all do respect, sir. You do not have the authority to shoot me down unless given permission by Cayde." Ryan said calmly.

"Yeah, Zavala, you will never get my permission to shoot down one of my Hunters." Cayde said, from the background.

"So, I have returned with some information." Ryan began, quickly running back through his story. "Zepheron and Zara have been working with Oryx since Zepheron was captured. Zara is actually the youngest of Oryx's daughters, and there is a large army of Hive and Taken on Mars and Venus, waiting for the single to attack us. Zepheron and Zara were sent here to kill you, Cayde, and Ikora. Zara tried to frame me for Baris-7's death by using her shapeshifting abilities to take on a form similar to me but Hive warped, and killed Baris-7 and tried to kill me, but I fled and they tried to follow but vanished." Zavala huffed at Ryan's story, then the 3 of them could be heard arguing, and then all the weapons disengaged and the Tower hangar opened, inviting Ryan to land. Ryan piloted his ship in and transmatted out, and was surprised to see that only Zavala was there, and Zavala was surprised by Ryan not being Hive warped. Zavala waved Ryan away and stalked off, a clear message telling Ryan to go about his business and he would be called later.

Shannon snapped awake and looked around. She was no longer in the Cave, but in a bed on what looked like the medbay of a Fallen Ketch. Shannon haltingly got up and went to the little window and saw that they were orbiting Mars.

"Ah. You are awake." A Fallen hissed from behind Shannon. Shannon spun around and saw it was the Fallen from the cave. "My friends, a lost Fallen House, arrived and took us from the Cave. Our Technicians are working on repairing your friend, but the damage done to him is incredible. I would advise you refrain from speaking, we had to perform surgery on you to fix your broken collarbone, and you awoke in the middle of it and we accidently damaged your vocal cords." Shannon remained silent and nodded, reaching up to touch the bandages around her shoulders and throat that she had not noticed before. Shannon tried to speak, just to test it, and a sharp spike of pain went through her, causing her to gasp and shake her head. The Vandal chuckled and left the room, and Shannon sat back down. Her ship was gone, she couldn't talk and was stuck on a Fallen Ketch of an unknown house. This week was just getting better and better. Shannon leaned her head back and let out a long sigh. This was gonna be a long day.

Edward sat by Ana's bedside, slowly rocking the sleeping Belen in his arms. He sat there, running through that morning in his head, trying to see if there had been any signs of something being wrong. Again and again, he went over the details, how she'd acted when being woken up, eating breakfast, anything, but there was nothing. Nothing was odd about her behaviour, yet here she was now, lying in a hospital bed, in a coma. According to what the doctors had said, something within her that had lain dormant had awoken and was trying to take her over. Edward laid his head back, still watching Ana and Belen, and slowly fell asleep.

4 Hours later…

Ana stumbled back from the Hive, climbing the walls of the Stadium to escape them. She knew now that she could not win. There was an endless horde, and eventually, they'd tire her out and she'd lose. She knew of only way to fight them now, and that was to not fight, but accept her fate. Ana reached the top of the stadium, and sat down. She was done fighting, she had accepted her fate. Suddenly, the entire world around her cracked, like someone had just hit glass, and then it shattered and fell away, leaving her in a void of darkness. Crota expected her to keep fighting till his rebirth, but she wasn't going to. She was not going to give him what he wanted. All the Hive turned to green smoke, and flowed over to Ana, and seemed to soak into her skin. Unknown to her, in the real world, her skin had taken on a green tint. As the smoke soaked in, Ana felt a weight lift from her mind.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Crota's booming voice echoed through this world she was in, the world of her own mind.

"I have accepted my fate. The Hive is apart of me, and there is nothing I can do to change it. You, on the other hand, do not belong here. This is my body, my mind, my power. Go find your own." Ana said calmly. With that, Crota's presence vanished, and Ana felt herself rising back to consciousness.

Edward jerked awake when he heard Ana gasp, and opened his eyes to see Ana sit up, and look at her hands, smiling.

"Ana, what the hell happened? Are you okay?" Edward hissed, making sure not to wake Belen.

"I'm fine. Better than ever, to be honest." Ana said, strangely calm. Ana raised one hand and balled it into a fist, and her eyes began to glow as Hyper concentrated Hive magic mixed with her Light.

"Ana, what's that?" Edward asked quietly. Ana got up out of the bed and smiled as armor, a clear mix of Hive and Guardian styling in it, formed on her body.

Ana smiled before she spoke, her eyes getting brighter. "It is my power. I have Awoken to my fate. From now on, I am no longer Human. I am Awoken, an Awoken Hive, and Oryx will fear my power."

Sorry for taking so long. I've been a little wrapped up in other things. Here it is, Chapter 10. I have a lot to do, so chapter 11 shall wait. Mid-March at the absolute latest.


	14. Chapter 11: Darkness Reborn

**Chapter 11**

2 Weeks Later...

"We shouldn't be here." The small navy blue ghost whispered to it's owner, an awoken girl, about 14 years old. She was crouched down up in the crossbeams of the hangar of Oryx's mothership with her ghost floating only a foot away. The girl just shakes her head at the ghost and creeps a little further out so she can get a clear view of the entire hangar. The hangar was a massive room, from floor to ceiling it was nearly 300 feet high and was about 1000 feet long, and this was one of the smaller hangars, which also made it the one with the best chance for her to escape. As with all Hive things, the room was an ugly green with strange growths, and at the current moment, was filled with Hive getting in and out of Tombships. "Sandra… We really shouldn't be up here. What if you fall?" The ghost whispered again, only getting an irritated look from the girl, presumably Sandra since no one else was around, in response.

Sandra suddenly gasped and yanked the helmet she'd fashioned from a Hive Thrall's head over her face, making her look like a Thrall with all the armor she had, as a small black and white orb floated up to inspect the crossbeams. Sandra's ghost vanished, taking it's place in a small pocket in the chestplate of the armor. Sandra touched the handle of her secret, one of a kind sword, one that she'd designed and built on her own, to reassure herself. When the orb caught sight of Sandra, it automatically assumed she was one of the Renegade Thralls which always somehow managed to get to places they shouldn't be, and it beeped at her and proceeded to encase her in a shell of energy and float her down into a line of Thrall boarding a Tombship.

In the time that Sandra had been hiding within the tunnels of this Hive ship, she'd learned to understand and speak the Hive language, so when she heard several Knights coming by, she did her best to listen to their conversation.

"Hey, did you hear that they almost caught the girl a few days ago?" The first one hissed. "Yeah, they said she took out 3 Knights and an Ogre on her own with only that sword of

hers." The second one growled.

"I heard that she took out 5 Knights, a Horde of Thrall, and 3 Ogres." The third one snapped.

"Well, I heard that she fought her way through a full battalion of Hive, and none of them survived." The first one hissed. A fourth Knight comes tromping forward, slightly bigger and clearly stronger than the other three. Sandra notices the scar on his back, and she smiles under the helmet. This was the only surviving Knight from that battle.

"None of that is true. She fought her way through Hangar A, slaughtering every Hive that came within striking distance. A Battalion you say? Ha. Try closer to 9 or 10 full battalions, 400 each with 50 Ogres a battalion. I'm the general that led that battle, and I'm the only one that walked out of that room alive." He snarls, staring all of the other Knights down with the eye he had left, since Sandra had stabbed out his two other eyes. The other three Knights back off, and then all of them turn to the entrance of the hangar as Ir Anuk and Ir Halak float in, singing softly. Sandra holds her breath in fear, knowing that the two of them will be able to tell that she's not truly Hive. Sandra's heart sinks when Ir Anuk looks straight at her, nudges Ir Halak, and the two of them begin moving towards her. Sandra stays still as the other Hive clear out from around

her, confused, as Ir Anuk and Ir Halak land in front of her and sigh. Sandra tenses the muscles in her wrist, preparing to activate the contraption hidden in her armor which would eject the sword so she could use it.

"You really wish to leave, don't you?" Ir Anuk hisses at Sandra, not at all sounding hostile. Sandra nods slightly, not releasing the tension on the contraption.

"Well then, how about we make a deal with you." Ir Halak hisses, spreading her arms. "We Let you go,"

"And you tell your daddy that we spared your life for his sake." Ir Anuk finishes, surprising Sandra. Sandra pulls just a little on the string in her arm, causing the sword to pop up out of the compartment in her leg armor, she grabs the hilt, and pulls the bladeless sword out and points it at Ir Anuk, drawing a laugh from the two sisters.

"What's the catch?" Sandra snapped back, speaking in the Hive Language, earning looks of surprise from all the nearby Hive.

"You have to fight and Kill every Hive in this room, and with a broken sword like that, it seems unfair." Ir Halak said, going to reach into a pocket. Sandra smiles as she whirls and strikes at the Thrall that had been sneaking up on her, activating the hilt, and creating the blade, which is made from plasma(kinda like a lightsaber, but cooler). The blade slices right through the Thrall, killing it instantly. Ir Anuk and Ir Halak float into the air and begin preparing one of the Guardian ships for Sandra, going rather slowly to give her time to kill all the Hive. Sandra gleefully dashes into the group of Hive, spinning and leaping about as she sliced through Hive like a hot knife through butter. Sandra's unusual grace from her obsession with a kind of dance the humans used to do, called ballet. An Ogre climbed to it's feet and swiped at Sandra, and she jumped up over the swipe and landed on it's arm. Sandra ran up it's arm and stabbed the Ogre in the eye with her sword, and then she sent a flood of her light through the blade, causing a miniature detonation which blew the Ogre's head apart. Sandra jumped and hit the ground, rolling to avoid being hurt, as the Ogre's blood and brains rained down around her. Sandra came out of the roll with a forward thrust, releasing the rest of the excess light in a bolt of plasma which shot forward, tearing through the chests of several knights, and completely disintegrating several Thralls and Acolytes.

Sandra smiled as she charged her sword with more light, preparing to show the thrall quickly closing in why she was to be feared. Sandra jumps and slams one fist into the ground, releasing a shockwave that stuns everything in a 25 foot radius, and then she used the rest of the massive amount of light to dart between the stunned Hive, slicing through them with her sword, parting heads and limbs from their bodies, causing screams of pain and gurgles from the Hive, blood splattering everywhere. Sandra missed one Thrall, and paid for it rather quickly, as it jumped on her back, knocked the sword from her grasp, deactivating it, and began trying to bite and choke her. Sandra used one hand to keep it's teeth away, and since she wasn't strong enough to just pull it away yet, she did the next best thing. Sandra opened her mouth as wide as she could and bit down on the Thrall's arm, hard enough to break through it's armor and skin, and causing it's disgusting acidic tasting blood to spray in her mouth and all over her front, getting the Thrall to release her. Sandra dives forward, snatches up her sword, reactivating it, and turns and spartan kicks the Thrall, knocking it down. She then stabs it through the head, killing it. Sandra looks up and around at the hundreds of dead Hive, and looks up at the still

living ones. The moment she looks at them, the Hive turn and flee, streaming from the room in hordes, leaving only the Knight General who she'd fought before. The knight pulls out a sword made of pure plasma, but much bigger than hers, and begins walking towards her. Sandra swallows nervously, knowing that her plasma sword had been her only real advantage in their previous fight. Sandra deactivates her sword and slides it into the compartment in her leg armor, takes a deep breath, and takes off at a dead sprint right for the Knight, taking him by surprise. The Knight takes a wide stance, preparing to put all his strength into his swing, and the moment Sandra gets close enough, he swings for her head. At the very last moment, Sandra drops into a slide, sliding under the sword and the knight, confusing him. Sandra pops up on behind the knight, and keeps running, heading for the wall she'd used to climb up to the crossbeams. The Knight turned and gave chase, but was nowhere near as fast as Sandra. Once she was about 5 feet away from the wall, she jumped, activating her sunsinger abilities to create a massive blast of force under her, launching herself up to the first real handhold about 30 feet up, instead of climbing up as she had before. Sandra pushed off the wall and pulled out her sword, reactivating it and charging it up with light as she activated her Striker ability, Fists of Havoc, and shot towards the ground. Before the Knight could react, Sandra slammed into the ground, creating a massive shockwave of electricity which stunned and injured the Knight, and then she dashed past him, using Bladedancer to strike him multiple times. For several moments, the Knight just stood there, unmoving, until he collapsed, his body falling apart, severed limbs rolling a bit and blood spraying and pulling out to mix with the blood already covering the floor.

Ir Anuk went to approach Sandra, who had not yet exited her blood rage. Sandra turned and darted towards Ir Anuk, who quickly ascended above Sandra so she wouldn't be hit. Sandra shook her head, clearing her mind, and calming herself. Sandra deactivated the sword and placed it back in the compartment, which she snapped shut. Next to her, Sandra's ghost materializes, seeming worried. Sandra suddenly realized there was a strange burning sensation in her stomach and she looked down to see that she had somehow been stabbed in the stomach without even noticing, and she was losing quite a bit of blood. With her last breath, Sandra cast a Ward of Dawn, creating a pocket of light around her body and her ghost.

Sandra gasped in a breath as her Ghost finished rebuilding and reviving her with the light from the Ward. Sandra shakes her head and nods at her ghost, acknowledging it with a silent thanks. Sandra sighs, and then her ghost transmats her into the ship which is powered up and waiting. Sandra had never flown before, but she knew how from all the manuals and simulations she'd done. Sandra plots the coordinates for Earth into the ship's navigation system, and launches out into space, quickly engaging Hyperdrive and jumping forward at immense speed. Sandra laid back in the chair, and switched control over to her ghost as she closed her eyes and fell asleep for the first time in almost a week. Unknown to Sandra, the Hive Blood she'd accidently swallowed was already working on changing her DNA, just like with Ana.

On the other side of the galaxy, back on Earth, there is a small flash of light from a tunnel and several Fallen stumble out, then collapse, dead. A new guardian, revived only minutes before, comes stumbling up and out of the tunnels, looking around in awe. A small red and black ghost hovers next to this new guardian, seeming satisfied and a little curious. You see, the ghost had looked through all the databases since the arrival of the Traveller, and this

particular human didn't show up in any of them, almost as if they had lived and died long before the arrival of the Traveller. This new guardian was clearly an oddball, laughing and enjoying the predicament, instead of freaking out like all the others had. The Ghost pondered the existence of this strange guardian and why the light had chosen her.

"Hey Tim, you think we could go to that big tower over there? It looks awesome." The new guardian exclaims, right before taking off at a jog towards the Tower and the Last City, without even knowing that that's where she was headed. The ghost sighs and takes off after her, grumbling to itself, slightly irritated at being referred to as _**Tim**_.

Ana groaned as she climbed back to her feet on the training mat. Her ears were still ringing from that last hit from Shaxx.

"Oh come on. Up you go, you said you could beat me. I'll humor you a bit longer." Shaxx said, mocking her with a genuine smile of amusement. Ana shook her head to clear her head, and then she takes a step back, then runs at Shaxx, throws a feint to the left and switches momentum to a high kick towards the head at the last second, but Shaxx ignores the feint and then catches her leg and uses her momentum and his strength to swing her up over his head and back down onto the mat, stunning her. "Alright, we're done for the day. You need to train more before you can beat me." Shaxx helps Ana to her feet, then removes the strange cuff from her wrist. Ana sighs as she feels all of her strength and magic from her Light and Hive magic come flooding back. Ana shook her head and stormed away, irritated that Shaxx had beat her so easily for the tenth day in a row. Ana sighed again as she made her way through the Tower back to her old dorm. Since her strange mutation, she'd been put back on duty in the tower, and so had Edward. At any given moment, if they wanted to see Belen, they just had to go visit Eris. Ana opened the door, placing her palm against the new hand scanners that had been implemented after Baris-7 was killed by the renegades.

Ana walked in, shut the door behind her, and made her way to the bathroom, stripping out of her filthy sweaty clothes on the way. She sighed in relief as she unhooked her bra and took it off, tossing it to the side. wearing that thing was torture. As Ana stepped into the shower and turned on the water, making sure it was scalding hot, a thought occurred to her which made her laugh.

"Wonder what would happen if I just stopped wearing underwear. It'd definitely make my physical exams with Shaxx much more entertaining." She said aloud, smiling to herself at the thought. She decided then, as she leaned her head back into the water, sighing in happiness as she felt the scalding water clearing the filth from her body, that the next time she went to train with Shaxx, she wouldn't wear underwear of any kind just to see his reaction. Ana giggled to herself and slumped down against the wall of the shower, using her magic to seal the drain and the shower door so that it would fill up with water. Once it was mostly filled up with water, Ana placed a bubble of magic around her mouth, nose, and eyes, and curled up under the water, completely submerged, but still able to breathe. Ana closed her eyes, meaning only to close them for a moment, and drifts off to sleep, her magic bubbles and seals staying put.

Eris sighed as Belen started screaming again. Once again, the little girl had thrown her rattle on the floor and couldn't reach it. Eris picked up the two and handed it back to Belen, who proceeded to stick it straight in her mouth. Eris smiled and sat back down on her crate and watched as the girl chewed on the rattle from her highchair. Eris shook her head a little, astonished by the girl's exceptional growth speed. The Girl wasn't even a full month old yet, but was already the equivalent of an eight month old human child. Eris had no doubt that in the next few weeks she'd already be up and running around. Eris and Belen were in Eris's dorm room, and due to Eris having Belen, she had cleaned and straightened her room until everything she had was packed away in boxes and locked chests and drawers. Her room was the bare minimum, a bed, a desk, a bathroom and a closet. She had nothing on the walls(anymore) and there was no additional furniture. Her dorm didn't have all the extra stuff everyone else's dorms did. Hers was this one room, and that was all she wanted. A sudden pounding at her front door made both Eris and Belen jump, and Belen went completely silent. Eris grabbed her Thorn hand cannon from the bed next to her and approached the door. Eris had to stand up on her tiptoes to look through the peephole, and the person she saw beyond brought a look of disgust to her face.

Garret Harting, one of the older guardians and one of the only guardians Eris truly despised, was standing at her dorm room door, looking as impatient as ever. Reluctantly, Eris opened the door just enough for her to look at him, and he sneered at her out of pure reflex.

"Cayde sent _**me**_ here to talk to _**you**_. He said he needs you in the War Room." Garret sneers, clearly irritated about being sent to get Eris. Without any response, Eris slams the door in his face and begins gathering things and putting them into her bag. Next, she put Belen into a carrier and put her bag on and lifted the carrier. When she opened the door, Garret was gone, which made her a little happier. Eris quickly made her way to the War Room, and what she found there was something she thought she'd never see again.

2 months later… But only here.

War. War was everywhere. It took different forms and different peoples, but no matter where you went in the Universe, there was always war. This is the conclusion Zara came to as she fired another shot from her sniper, taking out another charging Acolyte. To Them, it had been 2 months since they had crashed on this wretched planet, and according to Zeph's watch and the Ghosts time systems, Time was odd here. It was moving faster than it was anywhere else in the known Universe, or, at least it'd seem to be that way from an outside viewers perspective. Zara snapped out of her thought process as an Ogre came into view of the battlefield. It was about midnight, and like every other night these past two months, the Hive had attacked in a massive flood, throwing as much as they could at the small town of warriors. Ammunition was hard to come by, and harder to make, on this world, so only the snipers were allowed to use it. Due to the lack of ammunition for the Guardian's modern weapons, they were forced to return to using old fashioned Human weaponry, from before the golden age of the traveller. Zara fired another shot from her sniper and growled angrily when the bullet just bounced of the Knight's armor. She now understood these poor people's frustration. Only 2 out of every 5 shots actually managed to penetrate the armor of the Hive, excluding the completely unarmored Thrall, and even then it was only a minor annoyance to them. Zara quickly pulled the

slide on the sniper, ejecting the used casing and placing in a new one, and she pulled the trigger, but the gun only clicked. She was out of ammunition. It was only midnight, and she had already used all 6 clips of ammo. Zara looked around, and through her helmets zoom, she saw the same thing occurring with all the snipers. Zara reached over and grabbed the sword, called a katana, that she'd been issued, and jumped to her feet and took off towards the main battlefield. Technically, this was against regulations, but if she didn't go then they'd lose this fight and have to evacuate this camp as well. This planet was thick with Hive magic that it was actively draining Zeph's light, constantly, and Zara had unwillingly agreed to hide the fact that she was Hive. Even though she had told these people that she was, they had not believed her. Well, it was about time to show these people that there was still hope. As she ran, Zara allowed her Hive magic to flourish, and she began to draw in power from the surrounding darkness, until it was trailing from her like she was a shooting star.

Only moments before Zara would have fallen over a ledge, she jumped, and then sent herself flying straight down to the ground, using her own version of a Titan's Fists of Havoc, sending a deadly wave of Hive magic, solidified into spinning blades, outwards, creating a wide swath of destruction amidst the Hive. Zara let herself go completely, and she retook her true form, and proceeded to summon her own personal army of Hive, which she had changed the colors of. Instead of the gross brown and green she'd made them purple and blue. In less than a minute, she had the invading Hive fleeing from the area, terrified. Zara threw back her head and let out a spine-chilling cackle. All of her Hive gathered around her and kneeled, watching with no surprise as she landed on the ground, and retook the form she'd had been using for so long.

"My children, you have done your duty. Return now to your home and rest, for the attack shall no doubt resume tomorrow. These humans are our allies, and currently our only hope of taking down my father." Zara turns in a circle as she addresses her Hive, and after she is done, they vanish back through the portal with which they came through. Zara stumbles, completely drained of power, and attempts to make her way back to the townspeople, but passes out, unable to draw power fast enough to keep consciousness.

Zeph sighs as he watches Zara sleeping. He had very clearly instructed her not to reveal what she was, but she had done it anyway. He could not fault her too much, if she had not done so, they'd all be dead right now. What really surprised him is that the people did not care. They knew what she was, and hadn't doubted her claims from the beginning, they just wanted to test her loyalty. They appreciated her for saving their lives, despite their slight disgust at her being Hive, they said they could get over it rather quickly. He didn't know quite what to do with her now, but he needed to figure out how she had gathered the darkness as she did. He could feel it all around, thick like a fog, but he did not know how to reach out and use it. Zeph sighs and gets up from his chair and walks out of the hut Zara was in and stares out at the sun rise and quickly makes his way to his little hut. Apparently, they had arrived during the spring equivalent of this wasteland, and now they were in the summer months, where all 3 suns are out at once, bringing temperatures of up to 250 degrees fahrenheit. Zeph shut the door of the hut and blew out the candles, then climbed into the hole he'd dug in the cold earth, falling asleep easily.

Back on Earth(meaning only 2 weeks have passed. And it's the next day now.)...

Ryan stumbled and nearly dropped the ship engine he was carrying, which would have gotten him another smack upside the head from Amanda, who was watching him closely. After he had gotten back, he was almost immediately assigned to helping Amanda with repairs. He had been working nearly nonstop, and had had to repair the same ship 8 or 9 different times now. He didn't know who was piloting it, but they clearly had no cares whatsoever about the ship. As he reached the ship, he carefully set the replacement engine in the ship, and set about attaching the engine. He got so wrapped up in his work, that he did not notice the sound of boots clicking on the steel tiled floors, heading straight for him.

"Ah. So you're the one repairing my ship. I owe you a great deal." A male voice said behind him. Ryan just grunted as he finished attaching the engine. He then stands up and turns around to see Edward, sword across his back and fully armored from head to toe, as if he was about to leave. "Unfortunately, I'm being sent out again in 15 minutes, so my ship is probably about to get seriously damaged again. It is ready to go, isn't it?" Ryan just nods in response and shuts the engine compartment, making sure he heard the hiss of the seal. Almost immediately, Holliday hit the switch by her area and a crane lifted the ship up using magnets and transported it into the launch bay. Edward sighed and made his way out of the repair area, missing the death glare Ryan shot his way. Ryan hated Edward, but not for any personal reasons. At least, not anymore.

Now he hated Edward for the utter disrespect of his handiwork. He put a ridiculous amount of time and effort into repairing that ship and making sure everything was far above Guardian standards, and it was always brought back looking like a wreck. Well that wasn't happening this time. Ryan had had every piece of the titanium hull replaced with a metal of his own design, much stronger than titanium and much, much lighter. He'd tested it against bullets, rockets, AA guns, even had it put under the titanium press. Well, the bullets just crumpled, the rockets didn't even scorch it, the AA guns bullets were just deflected, and the titanium press broke, so it was pretty damn sturdy. Ryan had decided to name it Etherium, after an indestructible metal in an ancient card game called Magic The Gathering. Secretly, he had used his Knight Strength to try and bend it, and where he could bend titanium easily, trying to bend this new metal only resulted in him pulling a muscle. As Ryan moved on to the next ship to repair, he smiled to himself, thinking of the surprise Edward will have.

12 Hours Later

Edward's ship sat still, hiding below an unknown massive ship which had just recently entered the solar system. It was a massive spiked ship, very much so built as a warship. Edward had no idea where it was going, but it had completely ignored his approach, and ignored all his hails. From what his ghost had calculated, it was heading straight for the Dreadnaught. They weren't very far away from the Dreadnaught now, and Edward could see it clearly now. Suddenly, the massive ship cut it's engines and used reverse thrusters to slow to almost a stop. Along the massive forward spikes, a bright green and blue light begins to build, and then massive amounts of what appears to be lightning crackles between them, creating a massive ball of energy at the end, pointed straight at the Dreadnaught. The Dreadnaught begins to glow, as if preparing for something, and then the massive warship fires at the Dreadnaught. A massive beam of bright green and black energy arcs across the great distance between it and

the Dreadnaught, and impacts the Dreadnaught. The Dreadnaught absorbs all the energy and pivots to point towards an incoming Fallen fleet, then fires all the energy the ship had shot at it at the fleet, striking the ship in the front and causing such a massive explosion that the entire fleet is wiped out.

Suddenly, all the warnings go off on his ships consoles as thousands of turrets come out of the underside of the massive warship and all swivel to lock onto his ship. Even with his piloting geniusness, if all of those turrets were to fire at him, he would be shredded in an instant. A bay door opens amid the turrets, and the message becomes very clear. Dock or Die. Edward cautiously docks his ship, and the very moment it touches the ground within, the bay doors close and literally millions of Hive come swarming out to surround the ship. Edward stays inside his ship, then summons his Ghost.

"Is it ready yet? Please tell me it is ready." Edward said, on the verge of panic.

"A couple more minutes, the connection is unsteady at best. I believe you will need to distract them for awhile, but be careful, I can sense Oryx's presence, and a different, much stronger, presence within this place." His Ghost sighed before vanishing, going back to doing what it had been doing before. For the first time in nearly two years, Edward reaches up and hits the cockpit release button on the roof, causing it unseal and open so that he could climb out. All the Hive scatter away from him, putting a rather large distance between him and them. At first, he was confused, but then he say that quite a few of them were staring at the hilt of the sword on his belt. Edward then noticed that many of these Hive were missing arms and fingers, and many more had scars from a blade that must have seared through their armor. Edward knew not of the kind of blade that would leave battle scars like that, but he wasn't about to draw his blade and show that it was a normal Guardian sword. The massive doors at the far back of the bay burst open, and Oryx comes floating in, dragging two Hive Wizards with him. After just a moment, Edward identifies the two wizards as Oryx's daughters, Ir Anuk and Ir Halak. Oryx stops about 10 feet away from Edward and throws his daughters to the ground.

"Ir Anuk. Ir Halak. This is your very last chance. You shall destroy this Guardian, or I will destroy." Oryx snarls at the two of them, but neither move. Edward here's a small beep from his helmet, and a message pops up on his visor, informing him that his ghost had finished. Edward slowly climbs back in his ship and closes the cockpit, and Oryx looks up at the ship, getting a little more pissed as his daughters continue to disobey. Ir Anuk, gets up, floats up and begins charging a massive blast. Edward jams the startup button, and braces himself as Ir Anuk throws the bomb ball. To Edward's surprise, it goes right over the ship and hits the lock on the bay doors. Edward quickly pilots his ship up, and with a roar of rage, Oryx sends a wave of Hive magic at Edward's ship, and all the Hive open fire. Edward quickly pilots his ship backwards into the bay doors, blowing them open, and begins to fly out. Every single one of the turrets turns it's gun towards Edward, and he swears. He had completely forgotten about them, and now he was gonna pay for it. All the turrets open fire on Edward, and he sighs, preparing for death, and is shocked when the worst that the hail of deadly blast energy does is leave scorch marks.

With the most evil smile he could have, Edward readies the new gun that his Ghost had just finished installing, and places the marker on his hud on the inside of the bay doors, right on Oryx.

10,000 miles away, the massive satellite in orbit of Saturn swivels and points one end right where the marker is, and begins to charge, drawing vast amounts of Light from the Traveller which is so far away. If the gun had fired on Earth, the sheer amount of sound energy created would have been strong enough to blow the Dreadnaught apart. The gun fires, ejecting a massive beam of bright white energy, which arcs across the distance in nearly a second, going over Edward's ship and into the ship. Mere moments before it strikes, unknown to Edward, Oryx, Ir Anuk and Ir Halak, vanish, leaving the ship. The energy goes into the ship and causes a massive explosion, which begins to spread throughout the ship as Edward pilots away as quickly as he can. The shock wave from the massive blast hits his ship, and then a strange wave of green and blue energy washes over his ship and he passes out. His ship, somehow back near Earth, re enters the atmosphere and the autopilot kicks in and it carefully lands.

"Huh. This place looks awful." The new Guardian had finally reached what her 'Ghost' had called the Last City, but to her, it didn't look like much of a city. There was nothing but Ashes. As if someone had firebombed the place. As she continued walking further in, the ashes gave way to rubble. A small sound, like a stick breaking, came from the guardians left, and she froze, summoning her nightstalker bow and drawing back an arrow. From seemingly nowhere, at least 40 guardians pop up from the rubble, on rooftops and out of alleys and small nooks and crannies, all of them with guns pointed at the new guardian.

"Oh….. Well Hello there. Uhm… I come in peace?" The new guardian said uncertaintly. Her ghost, now accepting the name Tim, appears, hovering right above her left shoulder.

"Hello Guardians. This is a new Guardian, my Guardian. I was not able to identify a ship in the vicinity of the revive location, so we came on foot. We have come to see Cayde and Ikora." Tim said, rotating around a bit as the other Guardian's Ghost scanned them. After a few moments, the other Guardians lower their weapons and two of them walk up and grab the newbie by her arms and hold their other arm up. After just a second, a large ship uncloaks overhead and transmats the three of them up inside the ship and then begins making it's way up towards the Tower.

Shannon was grateful to be able to talk again, although she hardly ever talked. The fallen had repaired Je5u5 the best they could, but they didn't have technology anywhere near advanced enough to fix him correctly, and Je5u5's ghost couldn't fix him either. They would just have to wait. Shannon wanted to return to Earth, but the Fallen had refused to pilot their ship anywhere near Earth, saying something about not wanting to be found. Shannon stumbled over a small dip in the hallway floor, and cursed at herself. She tripped over that stupid dip every single damn time, and it made her look like an idiot. Now completely irritated, Shannon stomps the last couple of steps to her room and kicks the door open, storms in, and slams it behind her.

Here she was, trapped on a Fallen Ketch with no contact with Earth. She had no way of knowing what was happening to anyone or anything, and she had no information on her beloved, Ryan. Shannon strips out of her armor and down to just her underwear, letting all of her rippling muscles and numerous scars show to anyone who may be watching(literally no one), and throws herself onto the bed. Out of habit, Shannon reaches over and picks up her comm unit and checks it, expecting nothing, but her heart stops when she sees the words, '1

new message', on the screen. Very quickly, she checks the ID of the sender, and she sits up real quick when she sees that it was from Ryan. With shaking fingers, she opens the message, and nearly starts crying at what she sees. It was her ship. It had clearly been picked up from Mars, and Ryan had repaired it, and underneath the picture was a message, it reads 'Home is where the heart is, and my heart's with you. I will find you, and when I do, I will come Home.'

Shannon quickly sent a small barrage of messages, praying that one of them would get through, but none of them did. Her connection wasn't strong enough. In a sudden fit of anger, Shannon threw her comm at the wall, and when it hit, it shattered, breaking into multiple pieces, and Shannon instantly regretted her anger. She scrambled out of the bed and scooped up the pieces, actually starting to cry as she attempted to repair the comm unit, but to no avail. For the first time since they had boarded the ship, Shannon's Ghost materialized right next to her, and floated down to her hands. With a slight nudge, her ghost pushes her hands away, and it sets about repairing the comm unit in absolute silence. After only a minute or two, the comm was repaired, and Shannon actually spoke, for the first time since she had gotten on the ship.

"Thank you. I… I don't think I could have kept this up without that… it's… it's my only hope of ever seeing him again." Shannon said quietly, staring down at her Ghost. Her Ghost floated up and rubbed it's Soft, smooth, violet, velvet shell against her cheek, and then dematerialized back to wherever it had been before. Shannon clicks the comm back on, and her heart leaps in joy as she sees that a single one of her messages had gotten through, and after a moment or two, Ryan sent a return message. All it said was, 'Wait for me.' Nothing else. No pictures, no I love, just, wait for me.

 **Chapter 11 Epilogue**

Edward awakes only a few minutes after he crashes, his head pounding and blood running down his head. His helmet had cracked and broken in the crash, and his ship had suffered considerable damage in the crash landing, even despite it's clearly more advanced Shell. Edward's ghost materializes next to him, and begins to heal his wounds.

"Ghost, where are we?" Edward asks groggily as he attempts to climb to his feet, stumbling around a bit.

"If my calculations are correct, we are in what used to be America, specifically, a state known as Indiana. A discrepancy has arisen though. I can no longer sense the Traveller, and all traces of Hive and Fallen have vanished. There is an unnatural amount of activity outside the ship, and my sensors indicate that they are Human. Strangely, none of them show up in any of my databases. I'd suggest going exiting with extreme caution, and to keep your identity a secret." His Ghost responded, as it materializes his helmet and recreates it, fully repaired, on his head. Edward readies his Her Memory auto-rifle, places his Dreg's Promise in the holster in his boot, and places the hilt of his Void Edge on his belt, right in reach. Edward walks over to the exit door for passengers, and kicks it with all his might, sending it flying off it's hinges, and almost hitting the people in the crowd outside. Several of these adults, wearing blue uniforms with stars on them, and some wearing green with stars and strange stripes, all turn their primitive pre-golden age weapons on him.

"Halt! If you understand us, lower your weapon or we will open fire!" One of the men yelled at him through a large cone shaped device. Edward's ghost flipped on his external speakers, adding a voice modulator to make his voice much deeper.

"I understand you perfectly well, but I shall not lower my weapon until I am no longer being threatened. Now, where am I?" Edward snarls, keeping his gun trained on the middle guy, the one who had spoken.

"Sir, you are in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA." He yelled through the cone. Edward looks around without moving his gun, and realizes that he is surrounded by massive buildings, and his ship appears to have crashed right in the middle of a busy street.

"So then, my next question is, _**When**_ am I?" Edward asks, his heart slowly sinking. "What do you mean, When are you? Do you wish to know what year it is?" The man

asks.

"Yes, I am from Earth as well, but from the year 2746. I want to know what year it is now." The answer Edward got was not one he liked, and he nearly screamed in rage at this information. The man simply stated,

"Today is March 7th, 2017."

 **Chapter 11 Epilogue Of The Epilogue**

It had been so long since he had taken a breath, and yet, he finally breathed again. The ritual was complete, and he breathed once more. As he climbed off the stone slab, flexing his muscles and testing his strength, he looked down, to the two near dead beings lying on the ground, almost completely drained of power. He reached over and grabbed his once destroyed sword, and stabbed it down into the middle of the first beings chest, bringing a scream of agony which slowly turned into a gurgle and was then silent. The other one made a feeble attempt to crawl away in terror, but could not escape fast enough. She was the lucky one though, he only needed one sacrifice. With swift yet terrifying grace, he grabs her from the floor and holds her up, his face only inches from his, and then he spoke.

"I trust that you will not betray me as you did Father, dear sister." He snarls. She nods, and he snarls, "I can't hear head nods, worm."

"I am forever loyal to you, Brother." She wheezes, still exhausted.

"Then you shall do as I say, and you shall henceforth address me as King, or My Lord. Do you understand me?" He snarls, baring his teeth.

"I understand My Lord, My King, My Brother, Crota." she wheezes, before passing out. Crota laughs, and drops his sister, Ir Anuk, to the ground, and storms over to the massive balcony where uncountable numbers of Hive await. All bow at the very sight of him, and he throws back his head and lets out a roar.

"I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE DEAD! YOUR KING HAS RETURNED TO FIGHT ONCE MORE! I WILL LEAD US TO VICTORY AGAINST THE TRAVELLER AND IT'S VILE GUARDIANS! TODAY, THE WAR BEGINS IN EARNEST!" Crota roars. An answering roar from the crowd of Hive brings a smile to his face, and as they chant his name, his smile widens, all of his evil and malice showing on his face.


	15. Chapter 12: A Long way from Home

**Chapter 12**

Adjusting to this new, old world was difficult for Edward. This world was so strange, so foreign, and yet, felt so familiar. He had seen and done things in the past 6 months that he had only seen in old holo-photos or heard stories of. The only thing that bothered him, is that people tended to steer clear of him, apparently scared of his more rugged appearance and intimidated by the gun he had on his back. He had slowly come to love this world that he lived in, but he knew, that someday soon, The Traveller would come, and the end of the world would follow soon enough. Well, at least then he'd have his Ghost back.

Back in the Future

Of course. She could never get a break. She just had to run straight into the middle of an entire damned fleet of Fallen on her way to Earth. Bad enough that she'd run into Hive and Cabal and Taken all at once in the past 6 months. No, scratch that, it was 2 full fleets of Fallen. Always gotta be her. Sandra sighs as the tractor beam grabs hold of her ship and starts dragging it towards the hangar. She growls in irritation at the sudden pains wracking her body, which seem to pass fairly quickly. She wastes no time at all in putting on her armor, grabbing her sword, and waiting in her ship. One thing kept bothering her though, and it took her a moment to figure it out. She didn't recognize the Fallen Insignia at all. She knew all of them by heart, yet she'd never seen or heard of this one. So now, even more cautious than before, she readied herself for a vicious fight, and waited for her ship to be docked.

The very moment her ship was docked, she transmats out of the ship, bladel ready, but stops when she sees a massive figure right in front of her. She slowly looks up to stare into the eyes of a massive female Guardian, obviously a Titan. The blue-eyed Titan stares down at the wide-eyed warrior child.

Shannon narrows her eyes down at the armed child, brushes her scarlet hair from her eyes, and speaks quietly, a soft growl obvious in her voice.

"Well hello there. What do you think you're doing in my ship? I don't remember giving you radio clearance to emerge." Sandra takes several steps back before responding, slowly activating her sword blade.

"Well, my radio doesn't really work anymore. 3 months on a Hive ship kinda fried it. So if you could just tell those snipers to put away they're useless weapons." Sandra slowly shifts into a fighting stance, ready for the worst. "Now, who are you and why did you randomly tractor beam my ship. I was on my way to Earth." The moment after she finishes speaking, a loud boom rings through the ship followed by blaring alarms going off. Sandra whips around to stare out the hangar bay door, and watches as an entire Hive war fleet(30 times the size of this fleet of Fallen) emerges from hyperspace. "Man, these Hive just won't leave me alone."

"Uhm, short version, I'm Shannon. This is a Fallen Fleet who are enemies off all the other Fallen and now our Friends. And, we're currently under attack." Shannon grabs her gun, then turns to watch the girl transmat back into her ship and take off.

Sandra takes off from the Hangar, puts on her helmet, and sets her ship on a collision course with the back Hangar of the largest ship. With a crackle and a small snap, the Titan woman appears on Sandra's ship. No words are spoken, but it's understood that Shannon was not going to let her fight alone.

Right before the ship would have crashed into the closed Hangar doors, Sandra fires all her ships weapons straight into the door, creating a weak-point that causes the doors to explode inward on impact. At the moment of Impact, Sandra transmats from her ship and drops into the hangar, right onto the head of a Knight and burying her sword in it's body. Shannon follows almost immediately, dropping onto an Ogre and putting her fist through it's head.

A complete and utter blood bath follows, with the 2 Guardians wiping out Hive after Hive. For a moment, the room stands empty of living Hive, hundreds of thousand Hive bodies littering the ground around the 2 Guardians. A large door opens, and more Hive begin to pour in.

"Shannon, I think I've gathered enough energy. Do me a favor, take that ship and get out of here. I'm going to blow this ship to smithereens." Sandra sheathes her sword, winks at Shannon, and then vanishes, as if she were never there. Shannon wastes no time in transmating into the Fallen ship waiting for her.

Sandra stands in the core of the ship, struggling to access her light amid the suffocating darkness. The pains she had been suffering earlier are ever present now, and she can feel her body changing and adapting.

As she struggles to reach in her power and pull out her light, she finds something else. With desperation, she grabs hold, and she pulls on this new power. With a sudden rush of energy, the suffocating pressure of the darkness vanishes, and Sandra can feel her power growing, the darkness mixing with the light. With a loud roar of power, Sandra releases all her energy into a massive shockwave of pure destruction, which feeds off the matter and darkness it encounters, feeding itself to get bigger. Right before the explosion, she attempts to Warp herself back to Shannon, passing out immediately after starting the warp, potentially missing her target.

On a planet halfway across the galaxy, a recently born Guardian stops and looks up at the sky as a loud boom sounds in the air. He watches as something falls down to the planet, leaving a fiery trail, and impacts the ground with a boom. Shaking his head, he takes off towards the impact site, ignoring his Ghost's warnings.

The Guardian arrives at the edge of the crater, pausing as he feels a massive dark presence that he can't quite identify. A movement in the center of the crater draws his attention. In the center of the crater, lies the source of the dark energy, a teenage girl, who appears to be leaking Hive magic. The Guardian carefully approaches her, and checks to see if she is still alive. After a brief argument with his Ghost, he picks the girl up, and begins jogging back to his little cave.

Ana hits the mat with a loud and painful smack, stunning her for a moment. Shaxx stands over her, shaking his head at her.

"Stop. You keep using your mind and ignoring your heart. You have to wield both at once if you want to get better. I've been training you for six months and you still haven't improved. Let go of your pride, get up, and kick my ass." Shaxx snarls at Ana, considerably irritating her further. She struggles to her feet, glaring at Shaxx with some newfound hatred. In the past 6 months, Shaxx had beat her black and blue every single day, with no breaks or much rest. He physically and verbally abused her every day, and none of her outbursts had helped her. She knew she would never beat Shaxx with her power locked away, but she knew these savage beatings weren't designed to strengthen her body, it was designed to strengthen her mind and will. Shaxx shakes his head again and shoves Ana from the small ring of mats. "Go shower and rest. We're changing your training starting tomorrow. The abuse is going to get so much worse." With a huff, Ana limps away, taking off the restriction bracelet as she goes. She was not looking forward to these next few days at all.

"I'll just go ask Edward to…." Ana's heart breaks again, nearly reducing her to tears at the reminder of the loss of her only friend. She sits in the shower, her back to the wall, and finally, after 6 months, she breaks. She begins to sob, broken and lost without him. He was her backbone, the real light of her life. And now, he was gone. She didn't know what to do anymore. Unknown to her, she was about to receive the best surprise of her life.

He was almost there, just a few more hours and he'd be reunited with the love of his life. He put a little more speed into his ship, and the two companion Guardian ships sped up with him. He wanted to get there as quickly as he could, as the terror built in his chest. See, things were just going really really well, and he knew, that that meant bad things were going to happen. And unbeknownst to him, he had absolutely no clue how right he was.

Several more hours passed before it happened. He felt it, long before he saw it, and once it was in his sight, his joy turned to despair.

Ryan stared out the window of his ship at the massive red and black Cabal warship that had just captured his team with a Tractor beam. There are 2 bright flashes of light from the Cabal ship, and both his friend's ships explode, killing the Guardians within instantly. Ryan sees a massive blast coming towards his ship, and moments before impact, something tears him and his ghost from his ship and onto the Cabal warship. He hits the floor of the massive room with a solid thud, and moments later, his ghost yells as something snatches it from the air. Ryan looks up to find himself face to face with the Guardian traitors that had destroyed the outer district, and killed so many people. Ryan slowly stands up, and looks to his left to see a massive brute of a Titan with Ryan's ghost in his fist. His Ghost makes several odd squeaking noises, before the Titan's grip becomes too much for the poor Ghost, and the Titan crushes it in his hand. Ryan gasps as he feels his light drain away from him, but the darkness within him only grows stronger because of it. For the first time in a long time, he lets go, and allows the Darkness to take control. He goes into his full Knight-Guardian Hybrid form and charges the Titan, slamming into him and sending him flying. The other 5 Traitors jump to help their Titan friend, slamming into Ryan without bothering him much. He turns and lashes out, sending them tumbling backwards. He quickly grabs hold of the Hunter nearest him, and proceeds to sink his razor sharp teeth into her throat, biting straight through and then tearing her head off. He tosses her corpse to the side, and doesn't seem to notice when her body vanishes, and her corrupted Ghost quickly revives her.

Ryan fights these 6 traitors, killing them again and again and again, but they just kept on coming back to life, and slowly, Ryan began to tire. He knew that he could last much longer, and did the only thing he could to save himself. Using his Hive magic, he reached out until he found The Taken King, Oryx, and grasped at his power. Oryx responded immediately, overpowering Ryan, and dragging him away, and off of the ship. The loud boom echoed throughout the entire ship, and now, Ryan's transformation was complete. No Longer was he human, no longer did he have any connection to the Light. Ryan, was Oryx's newest Taken General.

The small explorer team of four Guardians paused as they entered the massive underground chamber. They had discovered a strange hidden building underneath a very old wargrounds. As they entered the pitch black chamber, they turned on their flashlights, and began slowly sweeping the room. The room was completely empty, but the strange decorations, and their Ghosts analysis, indicated that this place had existed long before the Traveler's appearance., except for a single golden throne in the very back, where a strange statue like figure sat, unmoving, and covered in a thick layer of dust. As the Guardians approached, a small humming began, originating from the center of the room. With a sudden boom of gears starting up, the entire room was lit up by two massive overhead lights, still managing to leave the Throne in shadow. The Guardians turned back to the Throne as they heard a small sound, and took several steps back as the Stone being on the Throne slowly began to move. Several lights lit up along the figure, and what appeared to be the glowing lights of a helmet visor activated, as the being slowly stood, the thin layer of stone and dust falling from its being. The Guardians took several more steps back as the being looked down at them, and slowly began to descend down the stairs leading up to the throne, the red glow of his armor and visor making the Guardians terrified. The being slowly reached up, and pulled a massive glowing sword from his back, obviously not very friendly.

"Who are you, and why have you disturbed my peace. I am the Guardian of the Ishtan Horde, and any who wish to loot its contents must go through me." The Being snarled at them all, it's deep growly voice terrifying them fully.

"We… we are Guardians, sent here by Cayde, to explore this area." The female Guardian in the lead slowly said, trembling in her armor. The being slowly straightened up, and the blade of the sword slowly vanished, the plasma being allowed to burn out. He slowly reaches up and removes his old helmet, dropping it to the ground.

"It has been many years since I have heard that name spoken to me. I was once a Guardian, a Hunter, who served under Cayde. I was sent back in time in a freak accident, and have waited here for many many hundreds of years, waiting to be discovered by Guardians such as yourselves. I am the Last Guardian of the Sangen Fortress and the Ishtan Horde. I now hold the key, to the true Downfall of the Vex. I am the first, and last, Guardian. My name, is Edward Faust, and I have returned from my death."

 **I'm so sorry it took me so long to release this chapter. It would have been out a long time ago been I've been dealing with College, and most recently, a very aggravating Hacker who had managed to get into my email. I had it locked down, and have been fighting to get it reopened now that I had secured it. It was reopened yesterday, and I ended up rewriting this chapter, so here ya go.**


	16. Chapter 13: a Miracle

**Chapter 13**

1 Month later...

The massive Taken General cackled as it slammed into Shannon, sending her flying backwards and into a wall. Shannon bounced off the wall, rolling a bit and coming to a stop face up on the ground. The General walked over and stomped one foot down on Shannon's chest, cracking her chestplate. Something about this one, seemed so familiar to Shannon, but she couldn't quite figure it out. Nothing made sense anymore. SHannon struggled with all her might to push the massive Taken off of her, but without her light, she couldn't fight back. The General was too much for her. To her surprise, the General huffed, and removed his foot, taking several steps back and sheathing his weapon, and then, he spoke.

"How pathetic. A Guardian without her light, isn't even a Guardian anymore. You are weak, and powerless. I could do whatever I wanted to you, and you could never fight back against me. You see, this is why I abandoned the light. I have embraced the darkness, and you should too." The General's deep gravelly voice changed as he approached Shannon, who had struggled back to her feet. Shannon watched in horror as the General shrank and changed, allowing the Taken energy to burn away to reveal what he truly was.

Standing directly in front of her, was the man she'd thought she'd lost. The man who had made, and ruined, her days. He was also the man she was about to punch in the jaw. He was not expecting the swing, and took the full force of Shannon's brute strength to his jaw, causing him to stumble back a bit, a look of surprise crossing his face.

"You. You're supposed to be dead. And now, I discover, that you're just a filthy traitor. You've given yourself to Oryx, and he's taken everything from us. I will never betray my friends and family. Not even for you, Ryan."

Ryan just sighed in response, and slowly drew his sword, looking Shannon dead in the eye.

"So be it." And with those final words, Ryan drove his sword through the chest of the woman he loved more than anything else.

2 weeks earlier…

Zeph chuckled to himself, quite proud of what he'd accomplished. With the help of a lot of Hive magic, they had finally managed to capture several ships and had escaped the strange time-warped planet, leaving the Hive behind. Once they had left the planet, they bolted into Hyperspace, on a set path towards Earth. He was still proud, despite it having been nearly a week ago. Zara sat in a seat not too far from him, trying to decipher a comm message they had received only a couple minutes ago. From what they could tell, it was coming from a supposedly uninhabited planet, but it was being broadcast on a Guardian specific emergency channel.

"Got it!" Zara shouting made Zeph jump in surprise, pulled from his thoughts. He quickly rolls his chair over next to her, and the message begins to play. At first, it's only static, but it slowly forms into a grainy image of two Guardians, one of which Zeph immediately recognizes as his daughter, Sandra. From what was going on as Sandra was talking into the mic, which still only registered as static, the two of them were in need of help. Zeph immediately changed their course to be heading towards the planet, and once they had entered the planet's atmosphere, the message she was sending became clear.

"WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT ENTER THIS PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE! THE VEX ARE WAITING WITH AN AMBUSH SQUAD!" Sandra screamed this into the mic for the millionth time, but it was far too late for Zeph and the other survivors. Before they could even take in what she'd just said, Vex began to teleport onto the ship, shooting at anything that moved. A massive battle erupted on the ship as the Survivors fought the Vex, knowing that they could not escape, due to the Gravity well the Vex had trapped their ship in. Zeph grabbed Zara, and the two began to run, dipping and dodging through the halls of the ship, slaughtering any Vex that got in their way. It didn't take long for them to reach the only remaining escape pod. It had only 2 seats remaining, and they immediately took them. The doors to the pod shut, and Zeph, Zara, and 18 other survivors were launched away in their pod, plummeting towards the surface of the dead planet.

The edge of the Last city...

Edward sat atop the walls, staring out over them as the snow drifted down through the air, coating the entire area in a bright white blanket, obscuring everything from view. The Fallen and Hive and vanished into underground caves, not wanting anything to do with the freezing cold temperatures. He had been back from the dead, in a sense, for a little over two weeks now, yet had not dared to go anywhere near the Tower. He didn't know if he was ready to go back, and face the people who had thought him dead for so, so long. A small sound behind him caused him to slightly turn his head, and he spied a Warlock striding towards him. The Warlock slowly sat down next to Edward, and reached up to remove his helm. The Warlock had dark black hair, and extremely pale skin, with brilliant blue eyes.

"Edward. They know you're still alive. They know you're back. Why do you refuse to see them? They really miss you." The Warlock looks at Edward, who just shrugs and looks away. "Edward, do you even understand what you're missing out on here? You are in a position that I can only dream of. I would give everything, and anything, to have my partner back for just another day. Even if only to say goodbye. But I can't. Baris is dead. And I will never get to talk to, or see, my best friend, ever again." Edward sighs as he reaches up to remove his own helmet, then lightly turns to look the Warlock in the eye.

"Jace… It's not that I don't want to see them… It's that I don't know what to say or do when I see them. I have been separated from them for several hundred years. I am not the same person I used to be, and they definitely aren't the same people I used to know." Edward looks down after he finishes speaking, his emerald green eyes full of regret. Jace puts one hand on Edward's shoulder, and sighs lightly.

"Edward. It's 11am on Christmas day. Everyone is expecting you to show up. Today is a day for us to be together, and here you sit, all alone. Come back to the Tower with me, say hi to all your old friends." Edward slowly puts his helmet back on as Jace finishes speaking, and summons his Ghost. He transmat onto Jace's ship, immediately followed by Jace, and the two set off towards the Tower.

Ana sits perfectly still on a crate in the common room, watching very closely as everyone walks by, her dark orange eyes trailing any and all movement. She looks to see the only ship that had left in the past two days, slowly land in the middle of the common area, getting dirty lookers from several passerby. The loading bay door of the ship slowly opens, and two men walk out. The one in the lead stands at five foot six, and the man behind him is six foot five. It's the man in the back which catches her eye. Something about him, the way he moves, the confidence that quickly builds in his stride, the extremely pale skin, his blonde hair, and his wonderfully amazing, glittery emerald green eyes seems so familiar. It isn't until he stops a few feet away from her and speaks does her hopes finally come true.

"Ana." The deep gravelly voice, accompanied by thick German accent had only ever belonged to one man. Ana launched herself off the crate and into the arms of her partner, the Hunter, Edward Faust. Edward caught her easily, and held her close, and immediately, all his fears melted away. Ana did not look any different than she had the last time he'd seen her, nor did she seem to be acting any different.

"Alright alright, break it up love birds, we got work to do." Zavala strode through the area, not really paying attention to who it was as he turned to yell at Jace. "Get your ship out of the commons who…" Zavala was cut off by Ana, who had drawn her gun secretly and aimed it at Zavala's back. She shot him in the back, and due to his armor, he didn't get hurt, but it caused him to stagger. Edward just watched, amused, as she took off at a dead sprint for Zavala, a murderous look in her eyes. Zavala whipped around to yell at whoever had shot him, just in time to catch a bone shattering right hook to the Jaw from Ana. Zavala dropped like a rock, unconscious before he hit the ground, and Cayde, who was not too far off, just started laughing his ass off. Ana slowly stalked her way back to Edward, not even caring that several Guardians were giving Ana worried looks. Cayde slowly walked over to Ana and Edward, seeming to be in a fairly good mood.

"So. Finally decided to come back, huh? Took ya damn near long enough. Good to have you back, Eddy." Cayde said, immediately getting a small snicker from Ana and a groan from Edward. Cayde held a hand out to Edward, and Edward just stared for a second. Edward slowly took Cayde's hand, shook it once, then out of pure instinct pulled him into a quick hug, which got a laugh from Ikora as she slowly walked down the steps from her room. Zavala slowly woke up, and several guardians rushed over to help him. He slowly stood up with their help, not fully recovered from that punch yet. Ana glared over at Zavala, still not having spoken a word, just letting her current death glare do it for her. Edward took a moment to admire the woman he hadn't seen in over 500 years, from her beautiful cinnamon roll skin, to her short brown hair, and her beautiful and strange orange eyes. At the moment, she wore a simple outfit, a skin tight shirt black shirt which barely covered her stomach and a rather decently lengthed royal purple skirt with dark black, thigh high stockings and black combat boots. Edward's eyes slowly travelled over the perfect and delicious looking curves of her body, tracing her perfect hourglass figure with his eyes. She turns back to him, and his eyes immediately snap up from her ass to her eyes, and a look passes through her eyes, letting him know quite fully that she had noticed.

"Edward." Ana spoke softly, as if she were afraid that speaking any louder would make him vanish, and he chuckles lightly as he reaches one hand up to brush against her cheek. "You need to shave." Edward chokes on a laugh as Ana reaches a hand up to touch his black beard, a small look of disapproval on her face. "It doesn't fit you to look so shaggy. Come with me, as captain dick for brains said over there, we have a lot of work to do. Ana proceeded to drag Edward towards her room, not much caring about anyone that was watching. She didn't care, they could watch all they wanted to. Today was Christmas day, and she had just received the best present in the universe.

Edward stares in the mirror, almost four hours later, looking from side to side at his now perfectly shaven face. The scars on his face that were hidden before are fully visible now, and he just stares at them for a moment, before Ana opens the bathroom door and walks in, a brush and scissors in hand. He sighs as he sits down in the chair she'd put not far behind him, and leans his head back a little as she begins to brush his long unkempt hair.

"Edward. Why didn't you come back until today?" The question that Edward was dreading finally came from Ana's mouth and he sighed as she began to slowly cut his hair, intentionally going to give him the same slightly messed up self-cut that his blonde hair used to always be in. He sighed again, then thought for a moment before replying, telling her the truth.

"I was scared. Scared that you would be nothing like the woman I was forced to leave behind. Scared that you would have moved on, and forgotten me. Maybe it was an irrational fear, as to you, I haven't been gone anywhere near as long as it was for me. I had over 500 years in stasis to think about what I would say or do when I finally returned to you, or… if… I returned. Maybe, maybe I just let my fears get the better of me, cause as far as I can tell, you have changed even a little bit from the fearless and powerful woman I fell so deeply in love with." Ana giggles as she finishes cutting his hair, and spins the chair around to face her. He gets up, and without missing a beat, pulls her into a hug and kisses her. Somehow, the two of them end up in the bedroom, with Ana pressed up against the wall as Edward trails kisses across her collarbone. "I've missed you so much."

With that statement, the two of them began to undress each other as they flopped onto the bed, spending the rest of Christmas day, alone yet together, happier than they had ever been before.

 **And here you are. I finished this chapter at 12:20am on Christmas Morning, and I'm posting it at 12:25am. This is your long awaited present.**


	17. Chapter 14: The End is Near

**Chapter 14**

Crota snapped awake, and tried to spring to his feet but found himself barely able to move. He tried to yell, tried to reach out to his father with his magic, but found he could do none of these things. There was suddenly a massive weight on his chest, and he opened his three eyes to find himself staring at the reflective surface of a metal helmet. Upon his chest stood a massive Guardian, clearly male, and obviously a Titan. Swathed in full Vanguard gear, shaded a dark black, with the armamentarium chest plate, the Titan seemed quite proud of himself. Before Crota could attempt to speak, another Titan appears, somewhat smaller and slimmer than the first, opposite the other so She was above Crota's head. Her armor matched her male counterparts with perfection, their smugness angering Crota. He attempted to sit up and throw the male Titan off of him, but was easily stomped back down. Crota did however, catch a glimpse of two other Guardian's, these ones being Hunters, and their six tethers(three each) which were sapping Crota's strength. Crota opened his mouth to speak, and immediately both Titan's sprang into movement. The one on his chest grabbed his lower jaw and the female grabbed his upper, and they wrenched his mouth all the way open. From out of the Corner of his eyes, Crota spotted two more Guardians, Warlocks, a male and female, approaching him from either side. Crota began to panic as Solar energy begins to swirl around the Warlocks, but he was no match for the Titan's strength. The Warlocks each summoned a single massive Solar grenade in their hand, and held them over Crota's open mouth. The Female Hunter then spoke, shattering the silence.

"You Know, we came here to kill your daddy, but now, looks like we get to blow your stupid little head off too. Such a waste of a resurrection, isn't it?"

With a stifled giggle from the Warlocks, they tilt their hands and drop the grenades into Crota's mouth, and the two titans fire jolts of electricity through Crota's muscles, causing his muscles to tense and his jaw to slam shut, forcing him to swallow the grenades. The Guardians all dive away, and wait. The Solar light dies out at the same time the Tethers decay, and Crota gets up, anger in his eyes. He opens his mouth and sucks in a deep breath, and the Guardians watch as his chest starts to glow. The moment he goes to roar, the grenades detonate, blowing his entire body to smithereens, and blowing a hole in the floors and ceiling, and setting off every alarm on the ship. The Six Guardians start laughing their heads off, and stroll out into the hallway. Arc Energy starts crackling around the Guardians as they start jogging, and then sprinting towards the wall at the end of the hall. The Two titans throw grenades at the wall, quickly taking the lead. Moments before they hit the wall, the grenades detonated, and the Titans shoulder charge into the weakened material, blowing it open, and using their second jump to boost themselves back up and much further forward in the massive chamber. The soar rather far due to their momentum and then the arc energy around them grows stronger as the plummet to the ground at lightning speed, leaving a trail of arc energy behind them. The twin titans had separated mid-air and came crashing down in different areas amid the massive horde of hive, causing a resounding boom like thunder, which seemed to shake the entire area. As they stood back up, they both switched to Sunbreaker and began tossing hammers of flame into the Hive.

The Two Hunters leapt off immediately after the Titans and reached forward to grab something in mid-air, their Arc energy vanishing as pure Void swirled around them. The world around them slowed, and they took in every detail of the room. The massive gate in the middle was what they were here for. It was the entrance to Oryx's home, whatever it was. The two Hunters looked over at each other, and came to an immediate understanding. They turned their backs to each other, took the ball of void energy in their hands and allowed it to expand and form into a bow of pure void light. They carefully drew and fired six arrows each, setting tethers which formed a perfect circle of death. To the Warlocks, it had appeared that they had simply quick fired six tethers off, but they knew otherwise. The Hunters dropped to the ground, switching back to arc just in time to start slashing through the tethered Hive.

The Warlocks closed their eyes as they leaped through the air, focusing and gathering energy into them. In unison, they vanish, Blinking down to the ground. With an ear splitting explosion, the Warlocks unleash the Storm Within, falling deep into Stormtrance.

Oryx leaned back in his throne, watching through the Crystal mirror as those six pesky guardians destroyed his son once again, and shredded through his armies. He shook his head in disgust.

"You know, brother, you could stop them. If you confront them now, you can kill them."

Oryx looked over in the direction of the voice, and found himself staring at a small Shrieker floating near him. It was clearly the work of his sister, Savathun.

"You know nothing, O' sister of mine. You have not stood where I am, you have not fought these beasts that call themselves Guardians. And it does not matter, they cannot reach me. They are not Ascendant. I have not fully left this realm since the Guardian I took made an attempt on my life beforehand." Oryx made a deep growling noise, which to him was nothing more than a sigh. "I would use that pesky Guardian, but I cannot find him, nor my daughter. They vanished into a Vex Trap. I cannot reach them."

Oryx stood suddenly, snatching the shrieker up in his grasp. He snarled viciously as he crushed the Shrieker, silencing Savathun. He stalked over to where his sword sat on it's pedestal, and prepared to send the Guardians his most powerful general. A New Beast, a Hive Guardian, a mix of Darkness and Light, completely taken and under his control.

The Six Guardians come to a stop, not a single Hive or Taken left alive. In the middle of the room, the massive gate began to hum, and a strange black and green portal forms in the middle with a loud boom. However, something didn't seem right. There were no Hive or Taken coming from within. The female Titan gasped audibly and then quickly threw up her Ward of Dawn, mere moments before a massive sword came spinning from the portal and slammed point first into the Ward, easily penetrating it but being slowed enough that it stopped mere inches from her face. With blinding speed, a Massive Hive Knight came flying out of the portal and slammed himself into the sword hilt, slamming it to the base in the Ward and into the Female Titan's chest, pinning her body to the rock behind her. The Ward of Dawn drops, and the Knight places his foot on the Female Titan's body and yanks his sword back out of her chest. Her ghost appeared and the Knight went to grab it, but the Male Hunter was faster. Using his Arc energy, he launched himself forward and snatched her ghost from out of the way of the Knight, and blasted a massive amount of pure light into the Ghost using the Shard of the Traveller embedded in his Gauntlets. She was immediately resurrected, and they all moved back from the knight.

"Val! Val, are you okay?" The Male hunter questions his friend as they all back away, his voice quiet and raspy, as he had always been.

"Y-yes… I think so anyway… did anyone else get hurt, Remas?" The Female titan coughs and sputters a bit, her voice barely audible. Unlike the others, dying and being resurrected was not easy for her, as she always had strange visions. Remas shakes his head as the two Warlocks, Anubis(Male) and Ame(Female) launch massive Nova bombs at the Knight in an attempt to drive him back. The Knight casually swats the Nova Bombs aside, and swings his sword up onto his shoulder.

"All of you… pathetic. Your god is dead, and soon, you shall be too." The Knight's gravelly sounding voice surprised the Guardians, as they had never encountered a Knight that could talk before. The Male Titan, Vorin, snarled quietly and formed a Hammer of Sol in each hand as Artemis, the Female Hunter, drew back an Arrow on her Shadow Shot bow. With a ground shaking roar from the Knight, the battle began.

Earth: The Last City

Edward sat perfectly still as his lover poked and prodded at all his new scars, but he couldn't help but notice she was intentionally avoiding the fact that his body was also riddled with what looked like cybernetic implants. He knew she was curious, and was unsure as to why she was holding back.

"Ana, love, I know you're curious. I'll tell you anything you ask." Edward shifted slightly as he spoke to Ana, who just sighed quietly. "Ana, it's alright. It's different, I'm different. But I'm still yours. The implants were just there to keep me running while I was in the stasis."

"I know… it's just so strange. I knew every inch of your body before… every scar, every shift of every muscle, but not anymore. Everything is different. But your voice… and your attitude… all still the same. You've changed so much without changing at all. It's just very strange to me. I'm sorry." Ana spoke quietly, her fingers running across his skin still. "We should hurry. The Vanguard wants to talk to us."

He sighed audibly, knowing what was to come, now that he'd returned.

"We have a report right here from the Research team, saying you said you had the key to beating the Vex. You have to tell us where it is." Zavala slammed his fists onto the table, irritated by Edward's seeming lack of cooperation.

"Look, Zavala, I don't know how else to put this. It isn't an object, or a person. At least as far as I know. I just have pictures, images, in my mind." Edward rubs the bridge of his nose before continuing, frustrated by his own inability to remember. "When I interfaced with… whatever that was… through my implants, I saw a place. Not the Black Garden, the Black Garden was simply a waypoint. The Vex had a map, pointing them somewhere, but I can't recreate it. If you could get it and bring it to me, I could read. Only issue is that, well, the Vex mind that has it was Taken. I don't know how I know this, I just do. You have to believe me." As Edward finished his explanation, Zavala glances over at Ana and subconsciously rubbed his jaw before starting to respond, being immediately interrupted by Cayde.

"I believe him. All we gotta do is draw out this Taken Mind thing and blow it up, right? Just a quick one two and boom, we got a map." Cayde looks back and forth between Ikora and Zavala, hoping for a response. Ikora breaks the silence after a moment, seeming rather amused.

"I hate to admit it, Zavala, but I think Cayde's right on this." Cayde quietly laughs to himself when Ikora responds, clearly proud of himself.

"Alright, then let's get us a Strike team together and go kick some Taken ass… do we even know where this thing could be?" Cayde stops to look at Edward as he asks his question, seeming to deflate a bit.

"Yes, actually. I know exactly where it is. It is currently in the dead middle of what used to be London, England." Edward can't help but smile when Cayde gets excited by the fact that Edward knew where it was.

With a wave of his hand, Zavala dismisses Edward and Ana, and the two begin preparations to destroy a Taken Vex Mind.

Shannon groaned outloud, her fighter zipping away as quickly as it could, trying in vain to outrun the Hive Tracking Missiles locked onto her. Jesus grumbles to himself as he attempts to repair the weapon systems of the damaged Fallen Craft, considerably irritated by the fact that he didn't really know what he was doing, and was just hoping something would happen. To his surprise, several loud beeps came from the consol next to him, and a set of Joysticks pop out. He looks up at Shannon, who was paying him no attention, and shrugs, grabbing the joysticks and firing the dual plasma machine guns at the missiles, and then at the ships in pursuit, wiping them out.

"Hey, Kid. You think you can fly a Hive Tombship?" Shannon yells back at Jesus over the loud warnings going off, making the young Exo guardian jump.

"I… uh… I dunno. Maybe." Jesus responds, his voice full of doubt. "Why?" Shannon doesn't respond to his question, instead she spins them around and launches them into what is clearly a collision course for the Hive Tombship's landing bay. Jesus says a quick prayer to the Traveler as there ship slams into the bay doors, a split second after weakening it with their missiles. The ship smashes through the bay doors, and the glass on the cockpit shatters, throwing the two Guardians out into the middle of the Horde of Thrall waiting for them. Shannon went to call up her light, and she felt something strange, as if the Void were calling to her. Without hesitation, she reached out to grab the spec of void light before her, and a large shield formed in her hand. With childish glee, she chucked the shield out into the crowd of Thrall, watching it bounce between them for just a second, and then ducking as a giant flaming hammer swung past her and slammed into the ground, creating a massive shockwave and a tornado of flames. Jesus let out a loud cackle as he dived into the Horde, spinning in a circle with his new hammer, obliterating everything that came near him. Shannon lightly shook her head, and dived into the Hive right behind him. It was going to be a long way to the control room.

3 hours later...

The Hive Knight grunted as he formed a massive shield to block the twin Nova Bombs thrown at him again, the several dozen tethers around him sapping his strength. He'd been fighting these Guardians for hours, barely able to stop them. He would be able to beat them easy, but the Hunter's using so much light from those damned shards to tether him so much, he knew he could not win like this. Unfortunately for them, however, he still had a trick up his sleeve. The Knight reached up to grasp the black crystal on his sword, breaking it off, and let out a roar as he shoved it into his chest. A massive barrier forms around him, cutting the Tethers away from him, and blasting Taken Energy through him once more. With a pissed off growl, he cracked his neck, and smiled at the Guardians.

"Ready for round two, maggots?" The Knight snarled at them, and without giving them a chance to respond, teleports right up to the Male Titan and full on kicks him across the room and into the stone wall, putting a massive hole in the wall. With that, the Guardian's realized they couldn't win, and played their own Trump card.

Without any warning, a Cable Ship smashes through the wall and into the room, firing a shot into the Knight's back. The Six Guardian's transmat onto the ship as it fires into reverse and launches itself back out of the massive hole and back into space. The Knight slowly got back to his feet and turned to watch the Guardian's retreat, knowing that their time would come.

 **I'm so so sorry I haven't updated in so long. Everything in my life went to shit all at once, and I've only just recently clawed my way out of that utter disaster.**

 **This may not be the best Chapter I've ever written, but I've written and rewritten bits and pieces over the last couple months.**

 **Anyway, I am officially back, and am planning on Starting Weekly uploads.**

 **I hope you guys can forgive me.**

 **-Your Favorite Villian, Oryx**

 **-RIP Cayde-6, you were always my favorite. I will miss you till the end of Days.**


	18. Chapter 15: It has Begun

**Chapter 15**

The lost Fireteam watched in horror as several hundred Hive Tomb Ships turned to begin following their Cabal warship.

"You foolish Light mongers. Taking on the King on your own. He commands great power, yes? You do not have the powers to stop him. We must flee, or die."

As one, the Six Guardians turned to face the Fallen Archon, once a Kell of his own House who know worked with them, as he spoke. Without another word, he held out all four of his hands, offering small neuro chips. Both Titans and Warlocks took the chips, easily sticking them into the almost invisible slots on the back of their helmets. The Twin Hunters remove their helmets as they Titans and Warlocks walked off with the Kell. The Female Hunter was the most striking of the two, her skin a deep purplish blue with pure white hair falling down to mid-back. She was without a doubt an Awoken, one of the Few Awoken Guardians the Queen had taken interest in before her disappearance.

Her Counterpart was very clearly completely human. He had rather pale skin, bright flame red hair cut short so as to make a small fluff atop his head. His eyes however, were far from ordinary. His left eye was a dull brownish color, and his right eye glowed bright Emerald Green.

"So then, Artemis, what do we while they pilot this… thing. Do you think we should try and contact the Vanguard again?" The male hunter sighed softly as he spoke, reaching up to lightly scratch his nose. Artemis sat down in the nearest chair, and began calmly re-braiding her hair.

"Honestly, Remas, I think that it's pointless. We've tried to warn them about those traitors and the Cabal War Emperor before. Zavala is an idiot and will not listen. On top of that, the Red Legion should be arriving on Earth in just a few weeks. We'd never make it anyway." Artemis continued braiding her hair as Remas shook his head and walked away, going in the direction the Kell and their friends went.

Shannon groaned as she put her fist through another Acolyte's head, getting progressively more irritated by Jesus's lack of progress. With a surprised yelp, Jesus is thrown back from the strange consol he is fiddling with, and a loud boom echoes through the Ship as a massive portal opens.

From within the Hive portal, Shannon's worst nightmare emerges.

A massive Taken Hive Knight emerges from the portal, a wicked looking sword slung across it's back. Shannon could tell just by looking at it that it was far more powerful than anything she'd seen before. Jesus made a strange mechanical growl before he erupted into arc energy, and launched himself off of the ground and at the Knight like a missile. The Knight, however, reacted so astoundingly quickly that Shannon barely saw his movements. He sidestepped the Titan with ease, and then snatched him from the air, stopping his momentum and disrupting his arc energy and light. With incredible strength and impossible speed, the Knight hurled Jesus across the two hundred foot chamber and into the wall, smashing a massive crater into the wall with the Exo Titan.

"You foolish Guardians. All so much alike. You rush in, with no care for your own lives. Your ghosts can revive you, right? The Light will protect you? I thought the same, but look at me now." The Knight's gravelly boomed throughout the chamber, echoing in the empty hall. Shannon stood still, terrified and confused, as Jesus pulled himself from the hole in the wall and transmatted over to her, having been healed by his ghost. "Here you both stand, ready to die over and over if only it means my death. Well, I think it's time to tilt the battlefield in my favor, don't you?" The Knight laughed viciously, reaching up and pulling the Sword from his back. Shannon and Jesus both pulled up Hammers of Sol and immediately threw two each at the Knight right as he slammed his sword point down into the pedestal before him. The two Guardians could do nothing but watch in horror as a wave of pure black energy swept through the chamber, erasing the Hammers of Sol, and then washing over them. Shannon and Jesus gasped in agony and fell to their knees as their light was ripped from them, the suffocating darkness like a massive weight on their shoulders. Jesus struggles to his feet first, drawing his Hawkmoon with a snarl. Shannon climbs back to her feet a feet moments later, drawing and activating her Raze-lighter.

All hell broke loose just a few moments later as rifts began opening and Taken Thrall began pouring out of the portals. The Knight sat down in the throne behind him, shrinking down to about seven feet tall as he does so, as he watched with malicious glee as the two Lightless Guardians dove into the Hordes of Thrall, taking them down one by one. Unfortunately for them, for every Thrall they killed, ten more rushed forward to replace it, quickly separating and swarming them. He made it a point to keep an eye on the Exo Titan… whatever his name was. In the moments before he'd thrown the exo, he'd seen the shard in his chestplate, and knew that he would eventually have no other option.

Once more, Jesus emptied the casings from his hand cannon, and reached down to grab another mag from his belt. Finding himself to be out of ammo, he chucked the two dark ages frag grenades he kept on him, clearing a wide berth around him. With no other choice left to him, Jesus rips the Shard of the Traveller from his chest and roars in triumphant rage as he felt it's light flow through him, restoring his powers. Once more, arc energy exploded around him, and he launched himself into the air, targeting the source of all this, the Knight. Just as the Knight stood, Jesus launched himself at the Knight in a last ditch effort to kill him. With a ear splitting crack and boom, Jesus slammed into the Knight's chest, driving him back a full fifty feet. As Jesus fell back, all his light gone once more, the Knight laughed, smoking, but not a scratch on him. The Knight nearly tripled in size once more, reaching down to pick up the battered and defeat Guardian who lay at his feet.

Shannon could only watch in horror as the Knight grasped Jesus in both hands, and with a thunderous roar, tore him in half, bits of machinery and blue liquid spewing everywhere. Shannon did not notice at first that the Thrall had stopped attacking her, far too focused on the Knight, who tossed Jesus's body into the Thrall, who set about tearing the rest of it apart, and ripping his inactive ghost apart as well.

All at once, the Thrall vanish, leaving only the Knight and Shannon. Shannon stared at the remains of what used to be Jesus, pure rage welling up within her. She turned back to the Knight, readied her Raze-Lighter, and charged him, roaring an incomprehensible battle cry.

The massive Taken Knight cackled as it slammed into Shannon, sending her flying backwards and into a wall. Shannon bounced off the wall, rolling a bit and coming to a stop face up on the ground. The Knight walked over and stomped one foot down on Shannon's chest, cracking her chestplate. Something about this one, seemed so familiar to Shannon, but she couldn't quite figure it out. Nothing made sense anymore. Shannon struggled with all her might to push the massive Knight off of her, but without her light, she couldn't fight back. The Knight was too much for her. To her surprise, the Knight huffed, and removed his foot, taking several steps back and placing his sword upon his back, and then once again, he spoke.

"How pathetic. A Guardian without her light, isn't even a Guardian anymore. You are weak, and powerless. I could do whatever I wanted to you, and you could never fight back against me. You see, this is why I abandoned the light. I have embraced the darkness, and you should too." The Knight's deep gravelly voice changed as he approached Shannon, who had struggled back to her feet. Shannon watched in horror as the Knight shrank and changed, allowing the Taken energy to burn away to reveal what he truly was.

Standing directly in front of her, was the man she'd thought she'd lost. The man who had made, and ruined, her days. He was also the man she was about to punch in the jaw. He was not expecting the swing, and took the full force of Shannon's brute strength to his jaw, causing him to stumble back a bit, a look of surprise crossing his face.

"You. You're supposed to be dead. And now, I discover, that you're just a filthy traitor. You've given yourself to Oryx, and he's taken everything from us. I will never betray my friends and family. Not even for you, Ryan."

Ryan just sighed in response, and slowly drew his sword, looking Shannon dead in the eye.

"So be it." And with those final words, Ryan drove his sword through the chest of the woman he loved more than anything else.

Shannon slowly looked down at the sword sticking out of her chest, and felt something well up from deep within her. Light began to flow from within her, Solar energy building up around her wound, and on her hands. Ryan's eyes widened in shock as Shannon grasped the blade of his sword, a snarl leaving her throat.

"You… You have been… misguided… Oryx must die… and I must purge you… here and now... The Nine demand it." Shannon spoke, but within her voice, Ryan could hear others, many, many other voices, and he knew he could not flee. Once again, he was defeated by forces beyond his control. He simply shut his eyes as Light exploded from Shannon, wiping the Taken corruption from everything within the room, and banishing the darkness within Ryan. Ryan sighed as he felt everything fade away, Oryx's control on him vanishing.

A long long ways away within a Vex Trap…

Everything had gone so horribly wrong. So so horribly wrong. Zeph, Zara, and the 3 other remaining members of their escape pod sat huddled together in a dark damp cave, hoping the radioactive material at the front of the Cave would hide them from the Hobgoblins, who were hunting and slaughtering everything that moved. They only moved from spot to spot during the Twilight hour, while the radiation from the double suns was at its highest, so that the Vex would be unable to find them. The only thing protecting them from the radiation was Zara's Hive magic, but if they didn't find a way to treat the now infected plasma shot wound in her side, they'd lose her and their protection. They all huddled back a bit as a large group of Minotaurs made their way in front of the cave, sweeping back and forth with devices designed to detect life forms. One of the minotaurs in the back paused at the cave entrance and turned towards it, when suddenly it's eye light up and it brought up it's blaster cannon. Zeph swore angrily, knowing the Minotaur had seen them, and launches a Nova bomb out from the entrance, blowing the Minotaur to pieces. Zara winced as she put up her radiation shields again, and the five survivors bolted from the Cave, Hundreds of Vex already in pursuit. Zeph sprang into the air and whipped around to throw another Nova Bomb, but felt a soft breeze, and then heard a soft whisper in his ear. All time slowed down around him as he felt arc energy leaping from within him, falling quickly into Stormtrance… but, different. Zeph focused all of his energy into the palm of his right hand, and then with a roar of anger, let loose a massive beam of destructive arc energy, vaporizing everything it touched. The Vex collectively came to a stop and retreated hastily, surprised for possibly the first time ever, by a Guardian unleashing new powers.

What Zeph was not aware of, however, is that his sudden outburst had attracted something much different from the Vex. Zeph landed on the ground, falling to one knee, and watched as the Vex began to rush in towards the weaker target. In the near distance, a loud boom can be heard, along with a massive bolt of lightning launching up from the ground and… heading straight for him. Zeph watched in awe as the strange Titan he'd seen with Sandra came flying down to smash into the ground amid the Vex, causing a huge arc explosion, like a Guardian shaped Missile. He laughs as he straightens up, arc energy arcing off of him like he was a living Tesla Coil.

"What's up? Came to crash your little party here." The strange titan starts speaking, and a moment later is shot in the back by a Hobgoblin. "Excuse me a moment, I have to deal with some unruly house guests." With a swoosh of arc energy swirling about him, he spins around, and launches himself forward into the Vex, slamming into a Minotaur and completely vaporizing it and every Vex around it, lightning chaining from Vex to Vex, damaging but not killing them.

Zeph gets back to his feet and calls up Stormcaller again, dropping into his normal Stormtrance, and teleports into the Vex and unleashes his devastating arc energy. The Vex quickly decided that they'd had enough and began to flee, warping away rather quickly, leaving Zeph and the Titan on their own.

Zeph collapsed to his knees as Stormtrance faded away, blackness slowly overtaking his vision. He knew he'd pushed himself too hard the last few days, and welcomed the sweet embrace of unconsciousness. Very faintly he heard his daughter voice calling his name, but that too meant nothing to him as he passed out, allowing the blackness to take him.

 **Once again, took way longer than I wanted. Life's a bit against me. I had a really REALLY bad cold all this week and most of last weekend, and slept the majority of it. Otherwise this would have been done sooner.**

 **To be entirely honest, my next upload won't be until Halloween, but that's because it's going to be a very important chapter(and cause ya know, Spooky Scary Skeletons and stuff)**

 **But I should have my writing laptop up and running soon, I just need a Charger now. So then I won't have to do all this writing on my phone.**


	19. Chapter 16: God's End

**Chapter 15**

The darkness was suffocating, smothering, but at least she had her Light back. She had the strength to keep going, to carry her unconscious lover upon her back. Her only mission, survival. She didn't know if she could continue to manifest her light like this much longer, it was already a strain and the Darkness was crushing. She regretted her decision to call in her favor while in such a panic, but she'd had no other choice while on the brink of death as she was, but she know understood Xur's warning to her.

Flashback: 1 year prior

"You're lucky I'm a nice person, but this doesn't mean I trust you." Shannon glared down at Xur as he slowly struggled to his feet, healing astoundingly quickly even after being assaulted by a half-dozen Cabal.

"I appreciate your assistance, Guardian, in saving me. But, The Nine appreciate your assistance more. The Cabal were after an artifact I was to deliver to the Nine. They owe you a debt of gratitude, but know this. The Nine do not like owing Debts, so be careful what you wish from them. Whatever it may be, make sure to be very, VERY, specific."

Back to present

At the time, Shannon had not known what he'd really meant, but now, she knew. The Nine had cured Ryan of the Darkness, but now, they were still trapped, and they were lost. All hope was lost, and she knew that eventually, she'd have to make a final stand.

"This is it. This is the spot." Shannon said this as she finally set Ryan down, hiding him away in a crevice in the rocks of the wall, preparing for hell. The massive chamber room began to rumble, the walls and floor shaking, dust raining from the ceiling far overhead, as a massive black form appeared in the center of the room. The Shadow of Oryx slowly pivoted to face Shannon, rage evident on it's features.

"YOU HAVE DEFILED MY SHIP! STOLEN MY MOST POWERFUL GENERAL! AND NOW, YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO STAND THERE, AND CHALLENGE ME!? I SHALL SHOW YOU THE TRUE MEANING OF DESPAIR!"

A ground shaking boom echoed through the hall as rift upon rift began to open, Taken pouring out of them in waves, and the echoing laugh of Oryx as the Shadow faded away. Shannon steeled herself for her final stand, finally pulling out her own last last resort. With a bit of a heavy heart, Shannon broke the end of her Raze-Lighter and extracted the Shard within, and smashed it on the ground. As Light burst from the shard, Shannon summoned her Hammer of Sol, and the light from the Shard began to pour into her, calming her, and filling her with warmth and power.

Shannon took a closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she gave in, letting her own mind slip away, replaced by that which had ruled her so long ago, The mindless engine of destruction, comparable to only the Warlock's Stormtrance, lovingly inspiring the name Suntrance.

The first wave of Taken were not prepared for what was to hit them. The mindless engine of Destruction far surpassed anything they had faced before. The wounded and beaten Guardian now stood at a towering height of eight feet tall, a being of Light and Fire. As the first few reached the towering Guardian, a massive Warhammer appeared within her hands, and she swung it up and slammed it into the ground, creating a massive wave of fire and death in front of her, flowing almost twenty feet. Suddenly cautious, the Taken just watched as the Guardian slowly walked forward, hefting the Warhammer up onto her shoulder with ease. The massive General in the lead, a Taken Knight rushed towards the Guardian, intending to take her out with his sword. The Guardian dropped her hammer to the ground, easily sidestepped the sword, and delivered an Uppercut into the Knight's jaw, the hit creating a shockwave of pure force, and blowing the Knight to smithereens.

Oryx slammed his fist into the arm of his throne in rage. For the first time since he became the Taken King, they Taken were disobeying orders. This Guardian had some kind of power that the Taken feared, and it pissed Oryx off considerably. He knew, however, that he would be no match for this Beast in this world… leaving him with only one option.

The massive boom of a portal opening shook the ship, and a strange energy consumed the room they were in. The Taken vanished as the energy poured through the room, and even in this mindless state, Shannon knew what had happened. As the walls melted away to reveal a massive open arena surrounded by Darkness, the Suntranced Shannon smiled. With a massive roar of Flames and an eruption of Light, Shannon reached out to the Traveller through the remains of the Shard and drew as much as physically possible into herself before the portal shut, cutting her off.

Shannon tripled her Height mere seconds before Oryx came from nowhere, swinging his sword for her neck. She blocked the sword with her hammer, a vicious smile spreading across her face. She shoves Oryx back, a booming laugh escaping from her. For the first time ever, she is able to speak within this form, and her voice echoes as if she were speaking with hundreds of voices.

"You. Big, Bad, Oryx. The Taken King. I can smell your fear. You brought us here, to your throne world. You know you cannot beat me… while I am connected, to the Traveller." Oryx simply growls in response, and he charged in again, and the fight truly began.

Sandra sat next to her unconscious Father's form, sighing somewhat irritated by both him and the Vex. The Titan, who called himself Thor, sat not too far away, caring for the injured woman who'd been with her father. Sandra knew her secrets, and could feel the Hive within her. However, she knew she could not say anything about it, as it was not her place, and Thor would most likely try to kill her. A soft noise outside drew a loud sigh from Sandra, and she stood, grabbing her new handcannon and going to the door.

"I'll be right back, Thor. If they wake, be nice." Thor grumbles at Sandra from within his helmet, and Sandra opens the door, walking outside and calmly loading rounds into her hand cannon as the Vex advance. "Well well, looks like it's time for our next show." Sandra chuckles to herself as she loads the last round, and snaps the barrel shut.

"Lights!" The repaired spotlights on the worn building snap on, illuminating the courtyard.

"Camera!" The Vex's eyes light up, the glowing red like the recording light on Cameras.

"Action!" The First of the Vex Fanatics rush her, and she cackles as she begins unloading rounds from her gun, fanning the hammer and still hitting with damn near perfect accuracy. Due to her illegal modifications, she was able to fire off twenty-two rounds before the Hand cannon clicked empty. In one smooth motion, she holstered the weapon in the Holster she definitely hadn't had Cayde special make for her the last time she saw him. She activated her sword blade and dove into the Vex horde as the mechanisms in the Holster set to work on reloading her gun for her. One after another, the Vex fell to her blade, Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Minotaurs. A soft click sounded in her earpiece as she dove back out of the Vex hordes, and she turned to watch in sudden despair as the Hive came pouring out of a nearby Cave. She knew not why, as they had never come out during the daytime before, but that became clear a moment later, when the door to the old building boomed open, and the previously injured woman stormed out, Hive magic flowing all around her.

With less than zero fucks given, Zara had blasted the door open, and came storming out onto the current battlefield. She was completely fed up with the Vex at this point, and now that there were Hive within her call range, she was ready to fuck up some Vex. She let go of her only deception spell, and rose into the air as she took her true form as the Daughter of Oryx, Zara, Mistress of Deception. With a single screech from her throat, the Hive surged forward, flowing around and ignoring Sandra, and fell upon the Vex, who began trying to flee from the destructive force, but to no avail. Almost immediately, a massive Vex Minotaur appeared, surrounded by some strange energy barrier. It was clear to them that this was the Mind behind this all, and Zara did the only thing she knew to do.

Zeph awoke as Darkness surged through him, empowering him and healing him. Deep within, he felt the pull, the Beast being summoned by the Offspring of Darkness. The strange titan fell back to the ground in Terror as Zeph stood, Taken energy covering and bleeding off his body as he arose and slowly exited the building, his Taken form manifesting from within. A single clawed strike from the massive scaled beast that Zeph had become, much like the old tales of Dragons, shattered the Mind's shields, and it attempted to flee in terror, but fell into the clutches of the only other power given to Zeph by Oryx. Taken energy started from the Mind's chest, and with a loud roar, it was consumed, absorbed by the Darkness, and it was Taken.

Oryx staggered back and fell to one knee, the strike to the chest from this Beasts incredible punch knocking the wind from him. Oryx attempted to reach out, looking for any means of escape, and found nothing. He had thrown everything he had, everyone of his generals and all the power he could, at this beast, and nothing had phased it. Now here he was, on one knee, his sword shattered, defeated. He looked up at the Beast as it walked up to him, hefting the huge hammer up onto it's shoulder.

"You… may have… defeated me… but you shall… regret your… poor choices… when the Dreams of my Sister… become reality." Oryx's scratchy voice still boomed through his Throne world, even though he was defeated, he could still do that much. The Beast gave a slight pause, then hefted the hammer up, and brought it down with a mighty swing. With his last breath, his final move, was to reach out to where he kept the secrets of the Sword Logic, and to abolish the entire area, force detonating the hidden explosives, so his Sister would never lay her hands upon it. After that, the Hammer struck with a resounding boom, and Oryx knew no more.

As Shannon continued to fall deeper and deeper into Suntrance, the Light and Fire consuming her conscious mind, she watched as Oryx's throne world faded away, returning her to the Ship and reconnecting her to the Traveller… but… something was… wrong…

Shannon gasped as she was torn from Suntrance, her light vanishing, the shell of Light and Solar fire vanishing from around her. She regained full consciousness instantly, but just before it had happened… she'd seen it all. The Light… was gone.

A few minutes prior…

Edward sat upon a hard wooden crate, glaring out of the Hangar doors at the storm of lightning and strange radioactivity that was the reason Zavala hadn't cleared them for their mission. In the background, he could still hear Ana arguing with Amanda, demanding to be allowed to leave anyway. He could hear as Amanda laid down the final word, and stormed off back to whatever she was doing in the other Hangar section, and Ana came over to see what Edward was so focused on.

"Hey Love, what's…" Edward cut Ana off quickly shushing her and staring out into the storm. Ana squinted out as well, and shook her head slightly in surprise when she thought she saw movement, but it was hard to tell in the darkness beyond. With an ear-splitting crack, a bolt of lightning light up the sky, revealing a fleet of hundreds of Cabal ships, heading straight for the Tower. Ana and Edward had barely registered Zavala's shout of "BATTLE STATIONS!" over the comms, when the first rockets struck, one going right over their hands and hitting a ship behind them. The resulting explosion and shockwave launched them both from the bay doors, and Edward turned in the air a few times, and saw a strange machine appear above them, slowly moving towards the Traveller. Then he hit the ground with a solid crack, and he lost consciousness.

 **Not 100% certain if I ever mentioned this, but this isn't going to follow Destiny Canon storyline super closely(And yes I'm totally skipping Siva. I honestly hated that whole DLC). Anyways, here we are. Halloween chapter as promised… sorta. It's still the 30th for me, but, whatever I guess. I got done early and didn't want to wait.**

 **Anyways, I'm finally done with Oryx and his bullshit, and IT'S FINALLY TIME TO DEAL WITH GARY(Ghaul)!**


	20. Prelude to The Red War

**Prelude to The Red War**

 **5 days after the attack**

He'd stopped trying to fight a long time ago. The rumbling from the drills slowly burrowing into the door was all he had left. Even his ghost was silent, as it had been since the Fall. It had been so long since he'd ever given death a second thought, and now, it was at the forefront of his mind. There was nothing else left. All his distress calls returned only static, and the signal went unanswered.

The sudden silence seemed to boom throughout the chamber far louder than the drills ever had as they ground to a halt, and the sudden lack of the vibrations upon the titanium door confused the lightless Guardian, and he stood, placing his ear upon the door to see if he could figure out what had happened to stop the Cabal's mighty drill.

Oh so softly came a soft tapping from the other side of the door, and the lightless Guardian's heart skip a beat as he slowly tapped out a response. The single click against the door was all he needed, and he quickly began removing the deadbolts as quickly as he could.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the doors creaked open with a slight shaking, and the Guardian found before him a massacre. The Cabal were dead, torn to shreds by strange weaponry, that he knew all too well. The Fallen slowly emerged from their hiding places, and the one in the lead, a large female Vandal, approached him, and then bent the knee to him.

"Skiviks, you've returned." The lightless Guardian's Eliksni was a slight bit off, and his voice was gruff and labored, the still bleeding wound in his side making things difficult for him.

"My Kell. It has been a long time. I have returned to you, and I have brought you an army, and… A present." The Vandal stands and turns, motioning to the Dregs in the back. They quickly scramble to lift up a massive crate, which they bring forward and place in front of the lightless Guardian, scrambling away and keeping their eyes on the ground. The Guardian slowly opens the crate, and carefully lifts up the bright white shard within, holding it up to the sunlight.

"Oh my loyal Skiviks. How I've missed you. We have much catching up to do. I've been gone for quite some time, and learned so much. And this, this will help us begin our mission." With a vicious laugh, the Guardian crushes the shard in his hand, and Light explodes from it, flowing into his body and reviving that which he'd lost. His Ghost jolts back to life, and it circles up from within the rubble where'd left it lazily, confused. "And now, I possess my Light once more, and this war shall begin. My House, we must prepare. We shall begin with the Cosmodrome, and soon, we shall own this entire planet, and the solar system. All shall be ours!"

The Guardian watches, a smug smile upon his face, as the Fallen rush back towards the ships they had come from, collecting as much of the Cabal technology as they could. The Guardian then sighs, and pulls a small photo from his pocket, and stares at it, memorizing every inch of the photo, from his own smile, to the face of the woman with her arms around his neck.

"Oh my love. I stayed with you for quite some time… but now, it is time for me to return to whence I came. There is something far more important than either of us at play here, and as long as you serve the Vanguard, I cannot stay with you." The Guardian sighs as he turns the photo over to stare at the names on the back, before his fingers burst into Solar flame and ignite it, disintegrating the photo, but not before burning the names on the back into his mind.

Edward Faust and his Precious Ana, allies no more.

Edward placed his helmet back upon his head as he set off after the Fallen, The House of Guards, of which he, was now Kell.

 **Oh boy. So, I know this is hella short, but it's not a full chapter. As the title implies, this a prelude. I'm working on the First Chapter of The Red War, and I've been considering making a new Story submission thing so I can properly start over from Chapter one, and it'll just be a continuation of this story(Obviously). But yeah, just couldn't find a good spot in a chapter to put this, so, here it is.**

 **Also**

 **I am 100% aware I forgot to change the Chapter number to 16 in the last chapter. Fight me(Don't, I'll lose.)**


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